From: rra@debian.org 
  
 Soren Stoutner  writes: 
  
 > Can you think of any way that using the Etc/GMT+12 and Etc/GMT-14 syntax 
 > would cause any *problems*? 
  
 Yes: Etc/GMT+12 and Etc/GMT-14 generate different time zone abbreviations. 
  
 % env TZ=Etc/GMT+12 date 
 Thu Oct  2 05:31:10 AM -12 2025 
 % env TZ=Etc/GMT-14 date 
 Fri Oct  3 07:31:14 AM +14 2025 
  
 The point of using GMT+12 and GMT-12 is that they keep the same 
 (incorrect, but it doesn't really matter for this purpose) time zone 
 abbreviation for reproducibility testing: 
  
 % env TZ=GMT+12 date 
 Thu Oct  2 05:32:09 AM GMT 2025 
 % env TZ=GMT-12 date 
 Fri Oct  3 05:32:12 AM GMT 2025 
  
 Otherwise, you may get spurious reproducibility failures due to the 
 changed time zone abbreviation. 
  
 I don't believe there is a mechanism to force the same time zone 
 abbreviation other than usig POSIX rule-based zones. 
  
 -- 
 Russ Allbery (rra@debian.org)               
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
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