Gerald Winters suggests (see below) that this work group might be a good place to discuss the timezone used when calculating a proper date for the changed: field of RADB objects. Is there a valid rationale for the RADB's use of a local timezone rather than Universal Time? If not, can this work group make a recommendation (formally or otherwise) to the RADB suggesting Universal Time be used to calculate the date for this field? The other inter-registry consistency issues Gerald mentions are likely important too, but this one seems ... totally without controversy. Or am I missing something? -- Sean Shapira sds@jazzie.com +1 206 443 2028 Gerald A. Winters (gerald@merit.edu)
Sean,
Actually there are some good reasons to use universal time. For example, we import the ripe registry and they are not using EST as we are. So there is some conflict there. There has been talk of enforcing consistency among the registries (ie, aut-num policy, maintainer registration, ...) and the changed date (ie, time-stamping) will undoubably play an important role. I think the changed data is ignored to a certain extent because humans supply the date and not the software. The software only checks for dates in the future, I believe, but will accept dates in the past. So the changed date is more like a hazy indicator rather than a precise time stamp. You know the the real/exact changed date is <= to the actual changed date. The place to bring this point up is at the RIPE meetings to the data base working group.
--Gerald
Sean Shapira writes:
In response to a recent RADB update request I received:
WARNING: date in "changed" (961113) is in the future - changed to 961112
The trouble? I'm guessing auto-dbm@ra.net was using Eastern Standard Time; I was using Universal Time. It seems a window of vulnerability exists during which auto-dbm has an incorrect idea of the "one true date" ;-).
Seriously, as the global route registration database of last resort, doesn't using Universal Time in the RADB make sense?
-- Sean Shapira sds@jazzie.com +1 206 443 2028 Serving the Net since 1990.
-- Gerald A. Winters gerald@merit.edu Merit Network, Inc. (313) 747-3522 (office) 4251 Plymouth Road, Suite C. (313) 747-3745 (fax) Ann Arbor, MI 48105-2785