[Nottingham] Time zone confusion

[Michael Simms]

On Sat, 2006-10-07 at 11:52 +0100, Ashley wrote:
> Hi folks,
> 
> 
> First the simple questions...
> 
> What is the best time zone to set on a Linux server in the UK?  It
> runs Samba and Apache services for the local network.

Depends what you need, unless there is a pressing need to set to UTC use
GMT with daylight saving option

> How do I see what time zone is in use on Slackware Linux system? 

Well,t he easiest thing I can think of is to type date, right now it
will show BST or GMT at the end.

> How do I change time zones on a Slackware Linux system?  I think one
> machine is on GMT and the other on BST

Have to say Ive never tried but the date command (check the manpage)
should be able to do it for you

> If I change the time zone will it cause any problems?

Not with standard apps

> On an ext2 file system are the dates stored in local time or UTC?  Is
> the time zone also stored? 

Everything everywhere on a unix/linux system is stored as a number
representing seconds since epoch (jan 1st 1970) the timezone is just a
calculation added onto the number stored.

> If I move a hard disk with ext2 partitions between machines with
> different time zones will the file times affected?

No

> Do ssh and rsync resolve time zone differences?

Should do, never tried though. Although ssh (I assume you mean scp)
doesnt keep timestamps.

> Does Samba have any timezone settings? 

Not that Ive ever seen

> Background to my problem...
> 
> I've just replaced a disk in my file server with a larger one.  Having
> transfered all the files (photographs) to the new disk and fitted I
> noticed that the file times displayed in Window Explorer are one hour
> out for all files (regardless if they were created winter or summer).
> This is apparant because I prefix the file names created by the camera
> with a date/time string ( i.e. yyyymmddhhmmss) during the transfer
> from the camera card (the script gets the date/time from the file
> timestamp on the CF card).  The photographs are transfered from the
> camera card via a PCMCIA adaptor in the Linux server ( i.e. not via
> samba).  I do not recall this descrepency before I replaced the disk,
> but it is possiable I just did not notice it before.  The file times
> displayed on the file server appear to be correct so I hope it's just
> a Samba configuration problem.  The new disk was fitted in a different
> machine and the file transfer was done initially via scp and then
> updated using rsync.  Both disks have ext2 file systems.  A new file
> created via samba has the correct time in windows explorer, but ls -l
> on the file server displays it one hour previous (the date command on
> the file server returns GMT).  My plan is to first check my fileserver
> is on the correct time zone and that samba is configured correctly. 
> 
> 
> Thanks,
> Ashley
> 
> 
> 
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> Nottingham at mailman.lug.org.uk
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-- 
Michael Simms - CEO, Linux Game Publishing
http://www.linuxgamepublishing.com