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Re: My system display UTC time....how to correct?



On Fri, Apr 16, 2004 at 09:43:48PM +0000, Lorenzo Rossi wrote:
| I have found in /etc/default/ the file "rcS"
| In this file there are the lines:
| 
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
| # Set UTC=yes if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT), and UTC=no if
| not.
| UTC=yes
| -----------------------------------------------------------------------
| 
| So' I suppose I can solve my problem changing the value of this variable
| and restart the system.

What is the hardware clock set to right now?  (one sure way to find
out is to boot to the BIOS' setup screen)  You want the above
parameter to match the actual setting of the BIOS clock.  Note that
the BIOS clock is unaware of timezones.  If you do not live in UTC and
you want your BIOS clock set to UTC (recommended) then the clock
setting in the BIOS config screen will not be local time.

| But...Now, my question is, what are the advantages of the UTC time?
| Do you know where can I get more info on UTC time and why I should use
| it?

UTC is simply a time zone (formerly called GMT).  It is +0000 offset
from UTC.  My, current, local timezone (EDT) is -0400 offset from UTC.

When I moved from New York to Illinois (US/Eastern to US/Central) my
clock was still correct.  By using that as the reference point, all I
had to do was run 'tzconfig' and tell the system that US/Central is
now the local timezone.  Everything just worked.  The system clock
didn't change, the BIOS (hardware) clock didn't change, but my
displays now showed the correct local time.  When I moved back I reran
tzconfig and set the local time zone.  All is (and was) well.  Not to
mention, by storing UTC instead of local time, no clock updates need
to be done for daylight savings time switches.  I laugh everytime
someone's Windows machine says "I just updated the clock, is it
correct?".

-D

-- 
One OS to rule them all, one OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all and in the darkness bind them,
In the Land of Redmond, where the Shadows lie.
 
www: http://dman13.dyndns.org/~dman/            jabber: dman@dman13.dyndns.org

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