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timezonestandards

What does US/Pacific or Asia/Tokyo timezone definition called?

I am writing a documentation that requires user to follow this timezone standard (e.g. US/Pacific or Asia/Tokyo or UTC), how do I say it?

Solution

  • These timezone names are associated with the IANA Time Zone Database. This database (and associated software) has become a de-facto standard across most computing platforms over the past few decades.

    Your documentation could reference this established internet authority. Note that this is a "living database" which changes with time. It includes a version number should your documentation wish to reference a specific version.

    Unfortunately the IANA Time Zone Database has recently forked, and at this time it is not clear what impact this will have. Here is the fork, which also includes a rationale for the fork:

    https://github.com/JodaOrg/global-tz

    So you also have the option of having your documentation reference this fork. The fork uses the same time zone names, but distinguishes itself with a version number derived from but distinct from the IANA version number.