Get the Olson TZ name for the local timezone?

Question

How do I get the Olson timezone name (such as Australia/Sydney) corresponding to the value given by C\'s localtime call?

This is the value overridden vi

Answer 1

I prefer following a slightly better than poking around _xxx values

import time, pytz, os

cur_name=time.tzname
cur_TZ=os.environ.get("TZ")

def is_current(name):
   os.environ["TZ"]=name
   time.tzset()
   return time.tzname==cur_name

print "Possible choices:", filter(is_current, pytz.all_timezones)

# optional tz restore
if cur_TZ is None: del os.environ["TZ"]
else: os.environ["TZ"]=cur_TZ
time.tzset()