Ubuntu python-dateutil installation / upgrade issue. dateutil.zoneinfo.gettz returns NoneType

Question

I'm having problems with the python dateutil.zoneinfo module. Note:

• Broken Ubuntu Machine (Ubuntu 11.04)
• Ubuntu working machine (Ubuntu 11.10)

Ubuntu Broken Machine:

In [1]: from dateutil import zoneinfo` In [2]: from_zone = zoneinfo.gettz('UTC') In [3]: from_zone 

From a working Ubuntu machine:

 In [1]: from dateutil import zoneinfo In [2]: from_zone = zoneinfo.gettz('UTC') In [3]: from_zone Out[3]: tzfile('Etc/UTC') 

Some introspection of Python.

Ubuntu Broken Machine:

 In [5]: zoneinfo.ZONEINFOFILE 

From a working Ubuntu machine:

 In [4]: zoneinfo.ZONEINFOFILE Out[4]: '/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_dateutil-1.5-py2.7.egg/dateutil/zoneinfo/zoneinfo-2010g.tar.gz' 

Additional info: broken machine, upgraded from python 2.6 to python 2.7. Performance

 $ locate zoneinfo -- snip -- /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dateutil/zoneinfo /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.py /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.pyc /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/dateutil/zoneinfo /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.py /usr/lib/pymodules/python2.7/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.pyc /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/dateutil/zoneinfo /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.py /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/dateutil/zoneinfo/__init__.pyc /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/dateutil/zoneinfo/zoneinfo-2010g.tar.gz /usr/local/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/dateutil/zoneinfo/zoneinfo-2011d.tar.gz /usr/share/zoneinfo /usr/share/pyshared/dateutil/zoneinfo -- snip -- 

I see a problem, but I'm not sure what to do with it. Note. I tried reinstalling python-dateutil with the "synaptic package manager" to no avail.

Answer 1

What about

 from dateutil import tz from_zone = tz.gettz('UTC') print(from_zone) # tzfile('/usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC') 

Answer 2

I know this happened 8 months later, but I had the same problem. My solution was to uninstall the existing version with:

sudo pip uninstall python-dateutil

then reinstall through

sudo easy_install python-dateutil

I hope this helps someone.