topic Re: Wrong time with su command in Operating System - HP-UX

Wrong time with su command

Viljami — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:00:11 GMT

This may be a easy one:

when switching user with su command the system time is wrong by 6 hours with the other user.

Checked different user´s profiles but found nothing wrong there, e.g. with time zone. The system is hp-ux 11.11

Thanks for any advice.

Re: Wrong time with su command

James R. Ferguson — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:05:52 GMT

Hi:

Start as 'root' and echo the timezone variable:

# echo ${TZ}

Now do:

# su username # ...and echo ${TZ}
# su - username #...and echo ${TZ}

In the second case, the user's profile should run. Look in there for a different setting of TZ.

Regards!

...JRF...

Re: Wrong time with su command

Pete Randall — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:07:07 GMT

I would have to assume that it has to be something in the profile. Try switching with and without the "-" option. Without it, the profile won't be executed and, I would think, the time should be the same.

Pete

Re: Wrong time with su command

Darrel Louis — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:08:47 GMT

Hi,

Please check your tz file in /etc/default.
Check if your Timezone in there is coorect.

Regards

Darrel

Re: Wrong time with su command

Bill Hassell — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:10:26 GMT

The time and date on HP-UX is always kept as GMT or UTC time. It is then translated to a particular timezone using the TZ variable. When you change user ID, a lot depends on whether you use the optional (but very important) - option (as in su - root). If you do not use -, then your new shell will have the privileges of the new user but the environment (including variables like TZ) will be unchanged, which is not good.

If you use the - option, then a login environment is created including running the new user's profile. Your date command under the new user will correspond to the current setting of TZ. Now this is the simple explanation. If you you are using Xwindows, the defaults in Xwindows will lead to unexpected results. Are you simply running a telnet connection and typing the su command or is it more complicated?

Re: Wrong time with su command

Kent Ostby — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:01:23 GMT

Please post for each user:

env | grep TZ

Re: Wrong time with su command

Viljami — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 03:45:37 GMT

Thanks for your answers!