Python 2.5.1 broken os.stat module

[Joe Salmeri]

""Martin v. Löwis"" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote in message 
news:4662F98C.8070709 at v.loewis.de...
>> It appears that you may have missed part of my tests.  Sorry it was such 
>> a
>> long reply but I was trying to provide a lot of detail so that others had 
>> a
>> clear understanding of what was going on.
>
> Please understand that it is *extremely* tedious to follow your
> messages. It would have been much better if they had been short and
> to the point.
>
>> Changing the timezone will defintely change the "textual representation" 
>> of
>> all timestamps just as you say (even though the actual UTC value has 
>> *not*
>> changed), however, when DST starts/ends the "textual representation" of 
>> the
>> timestamps on some files WILL ALSO CHANGE when the automatically adjust 
>> for
>> DST setting is turned on.
>
> Right, and that's because switching to DST means that YOU MOVE TO A
> DIFFERENT TIME ZONE.
>
> EST != EDT.
>
>> While it is true that I did change the timezone in the first part of the
>> test (to establish the baseline), in the second part of the tests where 
>> the
>> difference you are referring to occured, the timezone was *not* changed, 
>> the
>> only thng that occured was that DST started.
>
> And that meant that the time zone *did* change.
>
>> When the date progressed to a point after DST had started Windows now
>> reports the timestamp on that *unmodified* file now is 01/01/2007 08:00 
>> PM.
>>
>> I did not change the timezone, the only thing that occurred was DST 
>> started.
>
> So you did change the timezone.
>
>> Over the years this issue has caused all sorts of problems for backup
>> programs and CVS (greatly detailed in the article I provided the link 
>> for).
>
> That is very hard to believe. CVS and backup programs use the UTC time
> stamp, and completely ignore the timezone. So when you agree that the
> UTC time stamp did not change, CVS and the backup programs will work
> just fine.
>
> There was a long-standing problem with changing time-stamps ON FAT.
> On a FAT file system, the actual UTC time stamps change when the
> timezone changes (including the change to and from DST). *That*
> was a big problem for backup programs and CVS, and is now fixed
> with NTFS.
>
>> You mixed up my tests, in that case as shown above the timezone did *not*
>> change, the only thing that changed was that DST started and the file was
>> created during a time when DST was not in effect.
>
> Right, so the timezone did change.
>
> Regards,
> Martin