Re: Timezone messed up

[Bob Hilliard <hilliard@flinet.com>]

Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net> writes:
> cc: joey@kitenet.net, vizzie@airmail.net, jgoerzen@complete.org,
>         debian-devel@lists.debian.org, util-linux@packages.debian.org
> 
> Just another datapoint to muddy the waters ;-)
> 
> My machine is set to EST5EDT.
> The hardware clock is set to Local Time.
> My system time was correctly changed to EDT on Monday morning.
> I did not reboot my machine until after running a script I have that uses
> netdate to update the hardware clock, so I don't know if it would have
> gone back...possibly.
> 
> Anyway, I just wanted to point out that the change doesn't/shouldn't
> have anything to do with the hardware clock being set to Local Time.
> (It doesn't on my machine ;-)

     If think it does, and the fact that you reset your hardware clock
before rebooting masked the effect.  I reset all the clocks in my
house, including my hardware clock, before going to bed Saturday
night.  At that time, my system time was one hour ahead of standard
time, but said it was EST.  

     I was updating my mirror that night, so the machine ran all night
(a rare occurrence for me).  In the morning, the hardware clock was
still one hour ahead of standard time, but the system time was two
hours ahead of standard time, and said it was EDT.  

     After rebooting, the hardware clock and the system time were both
one hour ahead of standard time, but a time display showed EDT.  In
this case, the system accepted the hardware clock as being local time.

     On thinking about it further, it is obvious.  If you the GMT
variable is set, the system time is corrected to the timezone that it
is configred for, which includes daylight time when appropriate. If
$GMT="", no corrections are made to the hardware clock to get system
time.  The fact that it displays the abbreviation EDT tends to trick
one into thinking it has adjusted the displayed time.
 
> Resetting the hardware clock from the system clock before shutdown still
> seems to be a good idea though.

     Agreed.  I read "somewhere in the rebooting process" in the
original posting to mean "while rebooting", not "while shutting down in
preparation for rebooting".

Bob
-- 
   _
  |_)  _  |_       Robert D. Hilliard    <hilliard@flinet.com>
  |_) (_) |_)      Palm City, FL  USA    PGP Key ID: A8E40EB9


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