Re: Bug in GNU date ??

[Paul Eggert]

"MUTTON, PETER" <address@hidden> writes:

>     #> /usr/local/bin/date -u -d "Sat Apr  3 16:42:28 EDT 2004"
>     Sat Apr  3 20:42:28 UTC 2004
>
>                ^^ should be 21 as we moved to Daylight Saving time
>                   on Apr 4

I don't see any bug there.  The -d operand specifies EDT, so GNU date
assumes that you meant Eastern Daylight Time.

Here's how to get the behavior that you prefer:

$ /usr/local/bin/date -u -d "Sat Apr  3 16:42:28 EST 2004"
Sat Apr  3 21:42:28 UTC 2004

Or better yet, since alphabetic time zone abbreviations aren't
standardized:

$ /usr/local/bin/date -u -d "Sat Apr  3 16:42:28 -0500 2004"
Sat Apr  3 21:42:28 UTC 2004