glep-0045.rst


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---
GLEP: 45
Title: 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
Post-History: 2005-12-13
Content-Type: text/x-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
[#iso-8601]_. 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.

References
==========

.. [#iso-8601] Numeric representation of Dates and Time,
     http://www.iso.org/iso/en/prods-services/popstds/datesandtime.html

Copyright
=========

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0
Unported License.  To view a copy of this license, visit
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/.