Mktime makes wrong choice at spring DST

[Geoff Kuenning]

The mktime() function has an unfortunate implementation decsion.  From
the comments:

      /* We can't possibly find a match, as we are oscillating
         between two values.  The requested time probably falls
         within a spring-forward gap of size DT.  Follow the common
         practice in this case, which is to return a time that is DT
         away from the requested time, preferring a time whose
         tm_isdst differs from the requested value.  In practice,
         this is more useful than returning -1.  */

The problem is that this causes a request for 2:00 AM on 1-Apr-2001 to
be converted into 1:00 AM.  This is wrong.  In particular, it will
cause troubles for people who assume that DST starts at 2:01 instead
of 2:00, because a request for 2:00 won't produce the expected 3:00.

It seems to make much more sense to convert spring-DST changes
forward, following the practice of how people actually set their
clocks when they go to bed.
-- 
    Geoff Kuenning   address@hidden   http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~geoff/

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