Subject: [dhcwg] draft-lear-dhc-timezone-option-0[12].txt

From: Eliot Lear <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 28 Feb 2006 12:11:45 +0100

Dear DHC working group,

At a previous IETF I whined at Ralph for presenting a simple offset from
UTC as a timezone DHCP option.  Ralph promptly responded in his
characteristic way, "Send text".  With much of his help and some help
from some of you, I've teamed up with Paul Eggert to propose a new DHCP
timezone option for both IPv6 and IPv4 (there currently is none for IPv6).

The substance of the issue with the IPv4 timezone option is that it
merely provides an offset and is insufficient for a device to actually
determine its timezone, either for daylight saving time rules or for
that matter to display to the user a'la the UNIX "date" command.

And so I set off to write up something that WOULD convey sufficient
information.  As it turns out there is a standard for this sort of
thing, and it is the IEEE 1003.1-2004 POSIX "TZ" string.  Cool beans,
right?  The rub is that this isn't what anyone really uses for
configuring their timezones.  Most UNIX platforms make use of the TZ
Database while Microsoft makes use of its own TimeZone element, and
calendaring applications make use of a combination of a system call and
VTIMEZONE listings.

I've put something together that takes all this into account, and
smushed it into a single option.  As this is my first posting to the
DHCP WG since the group was renamed from HOSTCONF, I've got to have
gotten a few details wrong.  On the timezone front, Paul Eggert has
mostly nabbed those.  On the DHCP option front, in spite of the best
efforts of Bernie, Ted, and others, I'm sure I will have gotten some
bits wrong there.

If you have a few moments and some inclination, could you review the
draft?  -02 should be out in a day or two and it mostly cleans up
wording around POSIX strings and the reference to the TZ database.  In
particular I need comments about the length of various option and length
fields.  I've been fiddling with them based on conflicting advice.

Thanks,

Eliot

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