time data does not match format with python datetime in ec2 instance

Question

the following code works in my local environment macbook:

 d_time = datetime.strptime(start_time.strip(), "%b %d %Y %I %M %p %Z")

but when i try to run it on an ec2 instance with ubuntu it returns:

  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/_strptime.py", line 568, in _strptime_datetime
    tt, fraction, gmtoff_fraction = _strptime(data_string, format)
  File "/usr/lib/python3.8/_strptime.py", line 349, in _strptime
    raise ValueError("time data %r does not match format %r" %
ValueError: time data 'Feb 12 2021 02 00 AM PST' does not match format '%b %d %Y %I %M %p %Z'

Both env are using python 3.8.5

Answer 1

Your problem is that %Z won't parse a time zone abbreviation like PST (it works just for GMT and UTC afaik). Have a look at dateutil's parser - here, you can define specific mappings for abbreviations. Ex:

import dateutil

s = 'Feb 12 2021 02 00 AM PST'

tzmap = {'PST': dateutil.tz.gettz('US/Pacific')}

print(dateutil.parser.parse(s, tzinfos=tzmap))
# 2021-02-12 00:00:00-08:00