There is a problem with the standard “pytz” package: It’s awesome, but can’t be used on systems that don’t allow direct file access. I created “pytzpure” to account for this. It allows you to build-out data files as Python modules. As long as these modules are put into the path, the “pytzpure” module will provide the same exports as the original “pytz” package.

For export:

PYTHONPATH=. python pytzpure/tools/tz_export.py /tmp/tzppdata

Output:

Verifying export path exists: /tmp/tzppdata
Verifying __init__.py .
Writing zone tree.
(578) timezones written.
Writing country timezones.
Writing country names.

To use:

from datetime import datetime
from pytzpure import timezone
utc = timezone('UTC')
detroit = timezone('America/Detroit')
datetime.utcnow().replace(tzinfo=utc).astimezone(detroit).\
strftime('%H:%M:%S %z')
'16:34:37 -0400'