Billions of Android and iPhone devices rely on a single text file — the time zone database — to determine local time, kept up to date mostly by one UCLA lecturer, Paul Eggert. The article highlights his near-single-handed stewardship of the file, which has seen 2,500+ changes since 1986, and recalls a 2011 lawsuit that briefly threatened the database before the EFF helped defend it.
Background
The tz (time zone) database, also known as zoneinfo, is a foundational open-source data file used across Unix-like systems and many programming languages to map UTC offsets to local civil time worldwide.
- Source
- Lobsters
- Published
- Oct 8, 2026 at 04:18 PM
- Score
- 6.0 / 10