GLEP 45: GLEP date format

Author Henrik Brix Andersen <brix@gentoo.org>
Type Informational
Status Final
Version 1
Created 2005-12-13
Last modified 2017-09-14
Posting history 2005-12-13
GLEP source glep-0045.rst

Abstract

This GLEP proposes using an ISO-8601 compliant date format in GLEPs.

Motivation

The current date format used in GLEPs is dd-mmm-yyyy (e.g. 14-Aug-2001). This format is not internationalized and not easily machine parseable.

This GLEP proposes switching to using an ISO-8601 compliant date format yyyy-mm-dd (e.g. 2001-08-14). This format is international and easily machine parseable.

Specification

An overview of the ISO-8601 specification is available online [1]. Note that only the yyyy-mm-dd subset of the ISO-8601 specification should be used in GLEPs.

The date(1) utility supports ISO-8601, making it easy for GLEP authors to get the format right.

Backwards Compatibility

GLEP 1 should be updated to reflect this new date format, and all dates in existing GLEPs should be changed to be ISO-8601 compliant.