[Octave-bug-tracker] [bug #53539] GUI file browser date stamps / editor script file appear modified when parsing date strings

[Lars Kindermann]

Follow-up Comment #10, bug #53539 (project octave):

I think the culprit that really has to be avoided is

setenv ("TZ", "UTC0")

because *"Modifications of environment variables are not allowed in
multi-threaded programs"*. In glibc the setenv() function is MT-unsafe. See

https://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Environment-Access.html#Environment-Access

But I'm aware why Mike has introduced the temporary switch to UTC timezone.
strptime() is otherwise almost unusable. It is even recommended to do so in
several articles on using time related functions. But serious problems arise
in multi-threaded programs. Imagine what happens if several threads tamper
uncoordinated with the TZ variable...

Maybe the only 100% safe and correct way is to write an own replacement of
strptime, which does not care about timezones and daylight saving at all.
Perhaps the code from glibc can be stripped down to the bare minimum. 

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