[SGVLUG] more weird time-zone issues. (re CVS)

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

> -----Original Message-----
[...]
> 
> I don't have 'root' user access, although it is a Virtual 
> Private Server
> (VPS) and I do have some 'limited' access to certain 
> configuration files (such as httpd.conf, and so on), but not 
> to the date (/etc/localtime) file, nor to certain 
> executables/commands.
> 
> I noticed that /etc/timezone (which I can edit) contains the following
> setting: TZ=US/Eastern
> 
> I changed it to TZ=America/Los_Angeles
> 
> but I don't have permission to change the date manually (date 
> -s), nor to set the hardware clock (hwclock), so I assume the 
> next time they reboot this server, that will take affect?
[...]

Take a look at this site -- it may clear up some misconceptions...

http://www.linuxsa.org.au/tips/time.html

In a nutshell, however, the situation is that Linux/UNIX stores "time"
in a 32-bit integer representing the "time since the epoch (in seconds)"
[which, BTW, will rollover in 2038 -- just another variant on y2k...]
Commands that display the date refer to /etc/timezone to determine what
/you/ expect the time to be.  Rebooting the server should not be needed
for changes to /etc/localtime to take effect (though perhaps logging out
and back in to your shell may be needed)

Of course, /etc/localtime is the time for the /server/ itself, you
should be setting your "tz" environment variable in your startup scripts
-- since you indicated that you don't have access to that part of the
system, perhaps this is for the best -- where exactly is the /server/
located?

Also, see this page

http://www.sunmanagers.org/archives/1992/1352.html

For the answer to the question "what is /etc/timezone?"

Or 

http://ezine.daemonnews.org/200002/answerman.html

For even more on the time...