On Mon 2015-01-12T07:10:23 -0800, Steve Allen hath writ: > at the moment the most reliable source > is probably the IANA TimeZone Database > https://www.iana.org/time-zones > That comes with a caveat that it does not instantly respond to the > changes, so the most recent release is 2014j from November. > The tzdata.tar.gz contains the file > leap-seconds.list > That file originates from NIST and it does include an expiration data > of June 28.
It should be the case that file is found at ftp://time.nist.gov/pub/leap-seconds.list as a link to a file named something like leap-seconds.<NTPsecondCount> But for the past many days this NIST ftp server has not responded. It should also be the case the file is found at ftp://tycho.usno.navy.mil/pub/ntp/ but this one is signed by a USNO employee rather than a NIST employee. Despite what the content of the most recent file says in its commentary, there is no link to a generic leap-seconds.list file, only the individual NTP-stamped versions. The leap-seconds.list file itself reveals one of the biggest problems about the handling of leap seconds: the data are accompanied by documentation which is descriptive rather than authoritative. There is no place where an authoritative desciption of how things actually work can be obtained, certainly not the ITU-R and its TF.460. The folks behind TimeZone, Arthur David Olson, Paul Eggert, everyone who has contributed to that, the IANA and also the leads of the IETF tzdist initiative deserve more thanks than they will ever receive for the effort they have put into making a robust and workable scheme out of this inherently unreliable arena of human behavior. -- Steve Allen <[email protected]> WGS-84 (GPS) UCO/Lick Observatory--ISB Natural Sciences II, Room 165 Lat +36.99855 1156 High Street Voice: +1 831 459 3046 Lng -122.06015 Santa Cruz, CA 95064 http://www.ucolick.org/~sla/ Hgt +250 m _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] https://pairlist6.pair.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
