Daylight saving dates for Asia/Jerusalem need updating

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

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This change to `tzdata` should be pushed to previous Ubuntu versions back down to 10.04 LTS.

Official announcement (in Hebrew)
http://www.moin.gov.il/SubjectDocuments/2012-6979.pdf

The definition of daylight saving time in Isreal has changed (yet again) to the following :

Zion >=2013 on Mar Fri>=23 2:00 1:00
Zion >=2013 off Oct lastSun 2:00 0

This is a new law passed in 2013-07-08.

References:
http://home.tiscali.nl/~t876506/TZworld.html#mea
http://ca.huji.ac.il/bf/IsraelDaylightSavingsTimeEffective20130708.pdf (Hebrew)
http://ca.huji.ac.il/helpdesk/windows/clock.shtml#linux (Hebrew)

Hi, running ubuntu 12.04 LTS,
still no update to the tzdata package:

:~$ zdump -v -c 2014 Asia/Jerusalem | grep -i 2013
Asia/Jerusalem Thu Mar 28 23:59:59 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 01:59:59 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200
Asia/Jerusalem Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 03:00:00 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Sep 7 22:59:59 2013 UTC = Sun Sep 8 01:59:59 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Sep 7 23:00:00 2013 UTC = Sun Sep 8 01:00:00 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200

this must be updated before the september 8th

This has now become *urgent*
The legal position has zigzagged once agai. see:
ftp://ftp.cs.huji.ac.il/pub/tz/announcements/2013+law.pdf (in Hebrew)

The new rules are simpler, no longerlinked to the Jewish calendar:
 # As of 2013, DST starts at 02:00 on the Friday before the last Sunday
# in March. DST ends at 02:00 on the last Sunday of October.

# Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S
Rule Zion 2013 max - Mar Fri>=23 2:00 1:00 D
Rule Zion 2013 max - Oct lastSun 2:00 0 S

For 2013, this means:
    Change IST to IDT on the Last Friday of March (29-Mar-2013) at 01:00
    Change IDT to IST on the Fourth Sunday of October (27-Oct-2013) at 02:00 (Was 7th of September)

Workaround:

create a temporary directory (I chose $HOME/dstfix) and cd into it

 ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/data/asia
and download the text file
you should have a file named 'asia'

sudo su (get root privs.)
zic asia

to check whether the changes worked do
zdump -v Asia/Jerusalem | grep 2013

My results:
zdump -v Asia/Jerusalem | grep 2013
Asia/Jerusalem Thu Mar 28 23:59:59 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 01:59:59 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200
Asia/Jerusalem Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 03:00:00 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Oct 26 22:59:59 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:59:59 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Oct 26 23:00:00 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:00:00 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200

Then:
cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv
zdump -v Asia/Tel_Aviv | grep 2013
Asia/Tel_Aviv Thu Mar 28 23:59:59 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 01:59:59 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200
Asia/Tel_Aviv Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 03:00:00 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Tel_Aviv Sat Oct 26 22:59:59 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:59:59 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Tel_Aviv Sat Oct 26 23:00:00 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:00:00 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200

exit

Hi Mike.
Is it enough to copy the file to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv or you need change something in etc?

It seems to work you need to copy the new compiled tzdata file (e.g. Asia/Jerusalem) to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv.
After that you have:

zdump -v Asia/Jerusalem | grep 2013
Asia/Jerusalem Thu Mar 28 23:59:59 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 01:59:59 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200
Asia/Jerusalem Fri Mar 29 00:00:00 2013 UTC = Fri Mar 29 03:00:00 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Oct 26 22:59:59 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:59:59 2013 IDT isdst=1 gmtoff=10800
Asia/Jerusalem Sat Oct 26 23:00:00 2013 UTC = Sun Oct 27 01:00:00 2013 IST isdst=0 gmtoff=7200

The zic command creates the Asia/Jerusalem file.
instead of copying, do:

# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem /etc/localtime
# ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv

You can then try

zdump -v Asia/Tel_Aviv | grep 2013 ... or, of course, any other year

If you link instead of copy any changes in Asia/Jerusalem will automagically be reflected in the other two locations

N.B. Still no official patch. The above workaround is in *no way* guaranteed!!

Do you mean hard link /usr/share/Asia/Jerusalem to /etc/localtime?
Or copy the zic created file to /etc/localtime and then hardlink it to
/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem?

On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 1:06 PM, MikeR <email address hidden> wrote:

> The zic command creates the Asia/Jerusalem file.
> instead of copying, do:
>
> # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem /etc/localtime
> # ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem
> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv
>
> You can then try
>
> zdump -v Asia/Tel_Aviv | grep 2013 ... or, of course, any other year
>
> If you link instead of copy any changes in Asia/Jerusalem will
> automagically be reflected in the other two locations
>
> N.B. Still no official patch. The above workaround is in *no way*
> guaranteed!!
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1219664).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1158834
>
> Title:
> Daylight saving dates for Asia/Jerusalem need updating
>
> Status in “tzdata” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> The new POSIX definitions for daylight-saving in Israel are:
> # The law has been changed (2012-11-05): As of 2013,
> # DST starts at 02:00 on the Friday before the last Sunday in March.
> # DST ends at 02:00 on the first Sunday after October 1
> # unless it occurs on the second day of the Jewish Rosh Hashana
> holiday, in which case,
> # DST ends a day later (i.e. at 02:00 the first Monday after October 1
> #Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT
> SAVE LETTER/S
> Rule Zion 2013 max - Mar Fri>=23 2:00
> 1:00 D
> Rule Zion 2013 2026 - Oct Sun>=2
> 2:00 0 S
> Rule Zion 2027 only - Oct 4
> 2:00 0 S
> Rule Zion 2028 2053 - Oct Sun>=2
> 2:00 0 S
>
> In 2013 the change to DST is the same as before: 29-Mar-2013
> However the change to Standard time has moved from 28-Sep to 6-Oct
>
> This has been officially announced by the Knesset (Israeli parliament)
> but the documents are in Hebrew
> I do not know whether this falls under 'bugs' or 'update request'
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/1158834/+subscriptions
>

Do you mean soft link /usr/share/Asia/Jerusalem to /etc/localtime?
Or copy the zic created file to /etc/localtime and then hard link it to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem?

On my system /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem is soft linked to /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv (/usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem -> Tel_Aviv) so I suppose after I overwrited Asia/Tel_Aviv I need to hard link (not soft) it to /etc/localtime.

O.k I've just copied to /etc/localtime as well, that's how it seem to be done on ubuntu.

Why a hard link? ln -fs ,,, seems to work for me

Well I think it was like that in previous versions (or maybe it is like
that in debian)?
Anyway it seems like just copy the file works (e.g. both in /etc/ and in
/usr/share/timezone).

On Wed, Sep 4, 2013 at 6:55 PM, MikeR <email address hidden> wrote:

> Why a hard link? ln -fs ,,, seems to work for me
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are subscribed to a
> duplicate bug report (1219664).
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1158834
>
> Title:
> Daylight saving dates for Asia/Jerusalem need updating
>
> Status in “tzdata” package in Ubuntu:
> Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> The new POSIX definitions for daylight-saving in Israel are:
> # The law has been changed (2012-11-05): As of 2013,
> # DST starts at 02:00 on the Friday before the last Sunday in March.
> # DST ends at 02:00 on the first Sunday after October 1
> # unless it occurs on the second day of the Jewish Rosh Hashana
> holiday, in which case,
> # DST ends a day later (i.e. at 02:00 the first Monday after October 1
> #Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT
> SAVE LETTER/S
> Rule Zion 2013 max - Mar Fri>=23 2:00
> 1:00 D
> Rule Zion 2013 2026 - Oct Sun>=2
> 2:00 0 S
> Rule Zion 2027 only - Oct 4
> 2:00 0 S
> Rule Zion 2028 2053 - Oct Sun>=2
> 2:00 0 S
>
> In 2013 the change to DST is the same as before: 29-Mar-2013
> However the change to Standard time has moved from 28-Sep to 6-Oct
>
> This has been officially announced by the Knesset (Israeli parliament)
> but the documents are in Hebrew
> I do not know whether this falls under 'bugs' or 'update request'
>
> To manage notifications about this bug go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/1158834/+subscriptions
>

Mike, Assaf:

Thanks for your instructions. Here are my (mostly minor) corrections/suggestions:

1. The workaround you suggested patches the zone files but the verification is slightly wrong - by running the command
zdump -v Asia/Jerusalem
you verify the the zone file is correct but _not_ that the zone file is actually effective (i.e. copied or linked to /etc/localtime).

2. I think that dpkg-reconfigure tzdata does more than just copying the zone file to /etc/localtime so I suggest running it rather than copying or linking.

3. Hard linking /etc/localtime is probably wrong, it may cause the "source" zone file to be overwritten.

Here's my suggested workaround, it should be slightly more reliable:
#Check if the settings are right:
zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2013

#If wrong:
mkdir $HOME/dstfix2013
cd $HOME/dstfix2013
wget -N ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/data/asia
sudo zic asia
sudo ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Jerusalem /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Tel_Aviv

# reconfigure the system to use the new zone files
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

# Check again
zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2013

Hi Roy,
Using dpgk-reconfigure tzdata is certainly a better way of doing things, and it does seem to work.
Thank you for your help.

The updated clock settings have already been published upstream, at http://www.iana.org/time-zones. Version 2013d of the time zone database, released 2013-07-05, contains this update. That version has already been incorporated in Debian unstable and testing.

It is urgent to propagate that version to all supported Ubuntu releases. All Ubuntu-based machines in Israel are now affected by this major system-wide bug that could cause data loss in multiple applications.

According to 'timedatectl' command, my system is set to remove the DST bit in a month from now, which means that Ubuntu users didn't suffer from today catastrophe, but if these users will be naive and think that their machines are up-to-date, it'd hit them when no one will alert enough time in advance, on October 6th.

$ timedatectl
      Local time: א' 2013-09-08 15:52:00 IDT
  Universal time: א' 2013-09-08 12:52:00 UTC
        Timezone: Asia/Jerusalem (IDT, +0300)
     NTP enabled: yes
NTP synchronized: no
 RTC in local TZ: no
      DST active: yes
 Last DST change: DST began at
                  ו' 2013-03-29 01:59:59 IST
                  ו' 2013-03-29 03:00:00 IDT
 Next DST change: DST ends (the clock jumps one hour backwards) at
                  א' 2013-10-06 01:59:59 IDT
                  א' 2013-10-06 01:00:00 IST

We need this emergency fix as soon as possible, because users are starting to look for workarounds, and not all these workarounds are good enough for daily use, and these workarounds could break packages when an update will arrive.

@Tomer Cohen: You seem to be using Raring, which at this moment is on version 2013b of the time zone database. That is why you will only be hit on October 6. All other supported Ubuntu releases are on earlier versions, so all those users were already hit today by this bug. (I am using Quantal, so I was affected.) People testing the unreleased Saucy will not be affected at all, since Saucy is already updated to 2013d. So my statement above that "all Ubuntu-based machines in Israel are now affected" was not quite correct - it is all machines using any supported release of Ubuntu except Raring, and Raring users will soon be affected too.

None of that detracts from the urgency of fixing this bug.

For any of the affected releases, I highly recommend the version of the work-around posted above by @Roy Erez.

I am glad to see that the current tzdata package has already been ported to Ubuntu and made it into Saucy. Let's hope the Ubuntu team can expedite the process of approving it for backporting to all other supported releases.

The critical report which is also SRU compliant:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/tzdata/+bug/1222345

Updated tzdata in repositories (at least for precise)