timezone western Indonesia

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Hi,

We are setting up an ia64 hp server rx1600 model in western Indonesia.
The system was setup with timezone variable
TZ=TST-7 . However in the tztab there are no entries for TST-7.
Is this correct ?

Regards,
Franky

[Robert-Jan Goossens]

Franky,

current time in Indonesia is GMT+7.

Timezone: Asia/Jakarta
Date&time: Tue, 08 Aug 2006 17:34:06 +0700 (WIT)

Hope this helps,
Robert-Jan

[Peter Godron]

Franky,
I believe you can use the tztab file to cater for things like daylight saving etc.
I would just set the TZ and repeat in /etc/profile.

[Peter Godron]

Franky,
no points for this follow-up, please.

Have found a previous thread with similar problem and partial solution.
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1036834

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Hi Robert-Jan and Peter,

Thanks for the inputs, but I was actually wondering if TST-7 is a valid and a correct entry for the TZ environment variable.
I started from the silly idea that all TZ information could be looked up in the tztab file.

Franky

[freddy_21 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

You can use tst-7 or change to wib-7. actually i am at jakarta (Indonesia);p

thanks
Freddy

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Thanks Freddy.

I was looking for that kind of confirmation.

Regards,
Franky

[Bill Hassell]

> Thanks for the inputs, but I was actually wondering if TST-7 is a valid and a correct entry for the TZ environment variable.

man environ

What you will see is that a timezone of FRANKY-7 or WESTINDO+7 is just fine.

> I started from the silly idea that all TZ information could be looked up in the tztab file.

The tztab file is sort of a macro for timezones. A definition of a TZ value does not depend on being in tztab, but if it is, then the additional rules about daylight saving will be observed. As you probably know, timzones are purely political boundaries and only approximate 'sun time'. The tztab file makes it easier to handle historic (and future) changes for daylight saving offsets, but any string can be used to name a timezone.

So TST-7 is wrong for your location -- it will produce the same results as MST-7 (in the US, Mountain Standard Time). The 3 letters (or more) can be anything (see man environ) but what is important is the offset from GMT. For Jakarta, the offset is +7 so you could use TZ=JAKARTA+7 or JAK+7. The point is that HP-UX only keeps GMT time and the libraries use the current value of TZ to decode/display the date and time.

[Bill Hassell]

One additional note: JAKARTA-7 TST-7 or WIB-7 produce the same time as JAKARTA+7 TST+7 or WIB+7. However, the day is incorrect with -7. This is easily overlooked because of the international date line. Note also that if you set the time and date with the wrong TZ value, then your server will not have a correct GMT value (date -u for instance) and this can be critical for some applications. Here is a great reference:

http://www.timezoneconverter.com/

[Bill Hassell]

And one last note: The TZ value is set in the file /etc/TIMEZONE. This sets TZ as each user logs in. Note that international users may login from different countries and individually set TZ in .profile to match their location. Just one of the very useful features of HP-UX.

[Franky Leeuwerck_2]

Thanks Bill for your " all I need to know on timezone settings .. " !

Regards,
Franky