DST-Sun Alert 102836 for Java

I came across this link recently.

[1]http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/dst/ leads to

Sun(sm) Alert Notification

• Sun Alert ID: 102836
• Synopsis: Olson TZ Data (tzdata2005r or greater) Incompatibility Issues
• Category: Availability
• Product: Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition
• BugIDs: 6466476, 6530336
• Avoidance: Upgrade
• State: Resolved
• Date Released: 08-Mar-2007
• Date Closed: 08-Mar-2007
• Date Modified:
  1. Impact

The introduction of Olson Timezone (TZ) data, version 2005r or greater, may break backward compatibility for the Eastern, Hawaiian, and Mountain time zones, under certain circumstances.

This issue is also outlined in Sun BugIDs 6466476 and 6530336, listed at:

[2]http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6466476

[3]http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6530336

Note: The Hawaiian TZ is only affected for historical data. Other American TZs such as PST and CST are not affected.

2. Contributing Factors

This issue can occur in the following releases for all platforms:

• JDK and JRE v1.4.2_12 and above
• JDK and JRE 5.0u8 and above
• JDK and JRE 6 and above

Notes:

1. Releases below Java SE v1.4.x are not affected by this issue.
2. The condition will also exist if you have run the "Time Zone Updater Tool" for v1.4.x+, but without the -bc flag.

This condition will be apparent under one of the following two circumstances:

1. The use of old 3-letter TZ IDs, limited to: "EST", "HST", "MST".

Or:

B) The parsing of date strings containing one of the following three TZ strings: "EDT", "HDT", or "MDT".

3. Symptoms

The symptoms/result of this condition will be that Daylight Saving Time (DST) will be calculated incorrectly.

4. Relief/Workaround

There is no workaround for this issue. Please see the Resolution section below.

5. Resolution

To resolve this issue (ie. to enable support for the backward compatible DST timezones), run the "Time Zone Updater Tool" for v1.4.x+ with the command line options:  -f -bc

Complete instructions for running the tool can be found at: [4]http://java.sun.com/javase/tzupdater_README.html

Note: If you have already run without the -bc flag, you will need to rerun with the -f -bc flag to correctly resolve the 3-letter TZ abbreviation issue.

The -bc options will result in the deletion of the files:

• JAVAHOME/jre/lib/zi/EST
• JAVAHOME/jre/lib/zi/MST
• JAVAHOME/jre/lib/zi/HST

There are no known side effects to removing these files.

Install Issues :

In the unlikely event of unforeseen issues (e.g: such as power loss or I/O Error) restore the JRE Time Zone files to their original state by:

1. following the instructions at [5]http://java.sun.com/javase/tzupdater_README.html#remove

Or:

B) removing and then reinstalling the JRE or JDK.

The update may now be re-applied by running the TZ Updater Tool (with the proper command line options) as listed above.

For additional information on issues, products, and resources for DST changes, please also see: [6]http://www.sun.com/dst Since the link was not opening i thought i might as well cut paste. Hits to this URL must be high since DST is less than 36 hrs away. HTH
GovindanK

References

1. http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/hubs/dst/
2. http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6466476
3. http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=6530336
4. http://java.sun.com/javase/tzupdater_README.html
5. http://java.sun.com/javase/tzupdater_README.html#remove
6. http://www.sun.com/dst

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