>> That is, what I think of as UTC-0400 corresponds to Etc/GMT+4, not
>> Etc/GMT-4.
> The file names are confusing, for historical reasons.
> See the comments in src/share/zoneinfo/etcetera.

Ah.  Yes, that clears up the confusion.  Thank you.

> You should not be setting the TZ variable to any of the Etc/GMT[+-]*
> values.  Rather use TZ=America/Montreal, which knows the daylight
> savings rules and knows to print "EST" or "EDT" in appropriate
> places.

Except I don't *want* DST rules; I want something I can put in TZ that
will make time conversion run in, say, -0400, regardless of where
anyone is and whether DST is in effect anywhere.  (Using the Etc/GMT*
files was a failed attempt at this; my post was just because of the
confusion their names produced.)

Even if I just reverse the sign, that still leaves me with nothing I
can use to get, say, -0330.  There are indications in those comments
you pointed me at that TZ can be set to something other than a name of
a file under /usr/share/zoneinfo; is this documented anywhere (besides
POSIX itself, which I don't have a copy of)?

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