[mdlug] Are you an April fool?

[Aaron Kulkis]

Robert Meier wrote:
> In accordance with the Energy Policy Act of 2005,
> the United States will begin Daylight Savings Time 3 weeks early this year.
> 
> Starting in 2007, Daylight Savings Time will begin the 2nd Sunday of
> March and end the first Sunday of November.
> 
> In addition to your watch and alarm clock, you'll need to update your
> computer.
> 
> If you have a unix box (e.g. Mac, solaris, linux) you may be ready now.
> If you haven't changed hardware or otherwise rebooted your unix box
> more recently than 2005, you will probably need to update.
> 
> 
> 
> You can check by typing into a shell:
>     bash> zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007

/usr/sbin is probably not in "normal" users' paths, so

/usr/sbin/zdump -v /etc/localtime | grep 2007

  (works for ANY shell)


> (Your distro probably has a graphical tool as well, check your documentation.)
> (Your distro may require admin privileges to run zdump.)
> 
> You are ready, if you see:
>     est5edt  Sun Mar 11 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 01:59:59 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
>     est5edt  Sun Mar 11 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Mar 11 03:00:00 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
>     est5edt  Sun Nov  4 05:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:59:59 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
>     est5edt  Sun Nov  4 06:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Nov  4 01:00:00 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
> 

I see that here in the MSK (Moskva [Moscow], Russia) timezone, the changeover
is Mar 25 and Oct 28.  When I tried to set my timezone locality to Kuwait, everything
was off by an hour.... I'm hoping that Moscow and Baghdad have the same days.

If not...well, at least I know how to modify the file ;-)


> You need to update your locale settings, if you see:
>     est5edt  Sun Apr  1 06:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Apr  1 01:59:59 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
>     est5edt  Sun Apr  1 07:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Apr  1 03:00:00 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
>     est5edt  Sun Oct 28 05:59:59 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:59:59 2007 edt isdst=1 gmtoff=-14400
>     est5edt  Sun Oct 28 06:00:00 2007 UTC = Sun Oct 28 01:00:00 2007 est isdst=0 gmtoff=-18000
> 
> 
> If you need to update:
> 
> 0. (Ask your sysadmin or put on your sysadmin hat.)
> 
> 1. Download the current (as of 2007.02.15) timezone information from
>      ftp://ftp://elsie.nci.nih.gov/pub/tzdata2007b.tar.gz
>    or your favorite source of technical/legal standards.
> 
> 2. Unpack the data for your locale.
>      bash> tar -zxvf tzdata2007b.tar.gz northamerica
> 
> 3. Install the data for your locale.
>      bash> zic northamerica
>    (Your distro may require you to explicitly set your timezone again
>     in order to update your executable locale settings.)
> 
> 4. Repeat the above test.
>    You should see "Mar 11" and no longer be an April Fool.
> 
> 
> For further details, read the README file in the .tar.gz file above.
> 
> Enjoy,