time: On Windows, zone name returned by Zone() method sometimes cannot be used in time.LoadLocation

[gopherbot]

by diogomfranco:

Found when running http://play.golang.org/p/La5gHqlGU- on a Windows system
set to the (UTC -03:00) Brasilia timezone (with or without DST).
Output:

> ESAST -10800
> unknown time zone ESAST

This also affects time.Parse: time.Parse("MST",
time.Now().Format("MST")),
or time.UnixDate or any template including a timezone results in a parsing
error. With the "MST" template, the error is `cannot parse "ESAST"
as "MST"`,
but with time.UnixDate the error is the odd `cannot parse "ESAST 2013" as
"MST"`.

Apparently Windows exports the timezone name as "E. South America Standard
Time", while the name given in the zoneinfo database included with Go, it's
named BRT. Go uses the OS to get the timezone name (and abbreviation?), but
it doesn't use the OS to do the reverse mapping, and we get that.

On other OSes, Go (IIRC) uses the zoneinfo database, so this bug probably
doesn't exist there.

[gopherbot]

Comment 1 by torlangballe:

We think this might be the same cause:
I'm in Vietnam, and when I call
zonename, offset := time.Now().In(time.Local()).Zone()
I get a zone-name "ICT"  (Indo-China Time)
When I then call 
time.LoadLocation("ICT")
It returns UTC and the error: "unknown time zone ICT"
I'm on a Mac (go 1.1), so not just a windows problem if it's the same bug,

[alexbrainman]

Comment 2:

I think time.LoadLocation ( http://golang.org/pkg/time/#LoadLocation ) takes zone names
like "Asia/Bangkok" not zone abbreviations like "ICT".
Alex

[gopherbot]

Comment 3 by diogomfranco:

It does, but that's because, instead of using the system for looking up zones, it
uses a packaged zoneinfo database. The *real* problem is that, given its current
behavior, the time package is unable to parse its own times, such as in
`time.Parse("MST", time.Now().Format("MST"))`.

[remyoudompheng]

Comment 4:

Labels changed: added os-windows.

[alexbrainman]

Comment 5:

Remy,
As you described, it fails on linux too:
# cat > main.go
package main
import "fmt"
import "time"
func main() {
        zone, offset := time.Now().In(time.Local).Zone()
        fmt.Println(zone, offset)
        if loc, err := time.LoadLocation(zone); err == nil {
                fmt.Println(loc)
        } else {
                fmt.Println(err)
        }
}
# export TZ='Asia/Kolkata'
# go run main.go
IST 19800
unknown time zone IST
#
Alex

[rsc]

Comment 6:

The zone name returned by Zone can never be used by LoadLocation.
See comment #2.

Status changed to Invalid.

[gopherbot]

Comment 7 by diogomfranco:

This still leaves the problem that time.Parse can't parse time strings generated by
the time package itself, such as in `time.Parse("MST", time.Now().Format("MST"))`.
Should I open a separate bug for that? Or is this another instance of
https://golang.org/issue/3790 ?

[alexbrainman]

Comment 8:

diogomfranco,
Please, provide example to demonstrate.
Alex

[gopherbot]

Comment 9 by diogomfranco:

Code: http://play.golang.org/p/CmKvKRSzxi
Output:
Zone: "" -10800
Format:  2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00
2013-08-02T13:43:47-03:00
2013-08-02 13:43:47 -0300 -0300
Format:  02 Jan 06 15:04 MST
02 Aug 13 13:43 -0300
parsing time "02 Aug 13 13:43 -0300" as "02 Jan 06 15:04 MST": cannot parse "-0300" as
"MST"
Format:  Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST
Friday, 02-Aug-13 13:43:47 -0300
parsing time "Friday, 02-Aug-13 13:43:47 -0300" as "Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST":
cannot parse "-0300" as "MST"
Format:  Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:43:47 -0300
parsing time "Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:43:47 -0300" as "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST":
cannot parse "-0300" as "MST"
Format:  Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006
Fri Aug  2 13:43:47 -0300 2013
parsing time "Fri Aug  2 13:43:47 -0300 2013" as "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006": cannot
parse "-0300 2013" as "MST"
I changed my system language to Japanese and I don't get "ESAST" as the timezone
abbreviation anymore (I presume the abbreviation code just sees a bunch of non-[A-Z]
characters and ignores them all); however "ESAST" was it when windows was in English,
presumably from "E. South America Standard Time"
(http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms912391%28v=winembedded.11%29.aspx
index 065).
Output (system language English):
Zone: "ESAST" -10800
Format:  2006-01-02T15:04:05Z07:00
2013-08-02T13:54:17-03:00
2013-08-02 13:54:17 -0300 ESAST
Format:  02 Jan 06 15:04 MST
02 Aug 13 13:54 ESAST
parsing time "02 Aug 13 13:54 ESAST" as "02 Jan 06 15:04 MST": cannot parse "ESAST" as
"MST"
Format:  Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST
Friday, 02-Aug-13 13:54:17 ESAST
parsing time "Friday, 02-Aug-13 13:54:17 ESAST" as "Monday, 02-Jan-06 15:04:05 MST":
cannot parse "ESAST" as "MST"
Format:  Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST
Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:54:17 ESAST
parsing time "Fri, 02 Aug 2013 13:54:17 ESAST" as "Mon, 02 Jan 2006 15:04:05 MST":
cannot parse "ESAST" as "MST"
Format:  Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006
Fri Aug  2 13:54:17 ESAST 2013
parsing time "Fri Aug  2 13:54:17 ESAST 2013" as "Mon Jan _2 15:04:05 MST 2006": cannot
parse "ESAST 2013" as "MST"

[alexbrainman]

Comment 10:

diogomfranco,
Like this https://golang.org/issue/5783 ?
Alex

[gopherbot]

Comment 11 by diogomfranco:

That'd be the case for the Japanese locale one, but I also get the problem in English
(the "ESAST" case).

[alexbrainman]

Comment 12:

Do you? Are you using recent version of Go? If not, try it, please.
Alex