Update pytz timezone definitions

[Matt Nordhoff]

_robby wrote:
> I am looking at using pytz in a scheduling application which will be
> used internationally. I would like to be able to update the definition
> files that pytz uses monthly or bi-monthly.
> 
> As far as I can tell, pytz seems to be updated (fairly) regularly to
> the newest tzdata, but I don't want to have to update my pytz, just
> it's definitions.
> 
> http://www.twinsun.com/tz/tz-link.htm says that pytz "compiles tz
> source into Python." Does this mean that there is already a method for
> updating the definitions?
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated, even if it is to point out
> something obvious which I over looked.
> 
> - Robby

pytz's build process is rather complicated (e.g., a list of all time
zones is appended to pytz/__init__.py). I really don't think it would be
worth the effort.

python-dateutil [1] [2] provides time zone support similar to pytz's,
among other features. It keeps the time zone files in a tarball and I'm
pretty sure it would be easy to update.

I still don't get why you'd want to go to the effort though. Upgrading
the whole package is easy. It's not like pytz gets a new API every version.

[1] <http://labix.org/python-dateutil>
[2] <http://pypi.python.org/pypi/python-dateutil/>
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