From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 27 23:16:32 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C4B9216A61A for ; Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:16:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from emailrob@emailrob.com) Received: from green.dls.net (green.dls.net [209.242.20.70]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 86F1813C48E for ; Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:16:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from emailrob@emailrob.com) Received: from emailrob.com (216-145-235-248.rev.dls.net [216.145.235.248]) by green.dls.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 06CA64118F1 for ; Tue, 27 Feb 2007 16:45:41 -0600 (CST) Message-ID: <45E4B495.8000503@emailrob.com> Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:45:41 +0000 From: spellberg_robert User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win98; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20030208 Netscape/7.02 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: Subject: why can't i turn off fast_time? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2007 23:16:32 -0000 greetings, all --- as long as folks are paying attention to this whole time zone foolishness foisted on us by congress [ as if they don't have --real-- work to do; but, i digress ], it seems to be a good time to inquire about my pet peeve. please note: this is the --one-- thing about freebsd that --really--, and i mean --really--, hacks me off. i have yet to figure out how to turn off the warm_weather fast_time bug^h^h^hfeature. i am outside chicago, so i am six hours earlier than london. i choose to not observe fast_time any more than absolutely necessary. twice a year, these nimrods in washington actually expect me to drop what i am doing and go around everywhere and change the clocks. to put not too fine a point on it, i refuse. [ quite by accident, i discovered that this eliminates what i call "solar_shock". now, when others grumble on monday about the sun not being where it was on friday, i laugh. ] the first thing i did was to rtfm. then, i selected a box on which to experiment. the method that seems to work most successfully is to tell the box it's in arizona. this would be great if i were in, say, laramie, but, i haven't moved there, yet. so, it's a little irritating. then, i thought i would be exceedingly clever by creating the missing file that would be logically found between arizona and indiana, using those files as templates. surprise, surprise, they're in binary; just like --windoze--. having read eric raymond's "art of unix programming", i agree completely that configuration files should be in human_readable form, not encoded in binary, mega_corp style. i have put off playing with this approach. last, i tried the environment variable trick, both for the local zone and for utc [ surely, i can make the box do everything in utc, i thought ]. sha_ZAM!!! i thought i had struck the mother_lode. everything was working just as i wanted. i smiled smugly to myself. euphoric, i arose from my throne [ no, silly, the other one ], outstretched my arm and commanded "shutdown -h now". alas, logged messages were timestamped off by one hour. i was crestfallen. this suggests that the mobo clock is on utc [ or something ], fbsd is kloodging this into local fast_time and, then, the environment variable is re_kloodging the kloodge to display what i want to see, but shutdown doesn't honor the re_kloodge. or some such. this is the point where i gave up. i recount the above from memory. the last time i tried to get this right was about a year ago. windoze gets this right [ this is one of the few times when i prefer windoze; think about this ]. i cam select a time_zone, then uncheck the "observe fast_time" box. no problem. but, my 'nix boxen have their own agenda. i solved this by setting them to what displays as utc and what produces the right epoch_offset, then i calculate the correct timestamps myself in my apps. i simply accept that my timestamps are right and some of the system generated timestamps are wrong. c'est la guerre. ------------------------------------------ i wouldn't bother writing except that congress decided to meddle, so some really_smart_people are paying attention. all i want is to be able to set my boxes to utc, with no fast_time, and to have my apps and all of the other apps agree on what the clock says, at --all-- times. it would be a plus if there were binary files for the 4 contiguous us time_zones [ 2 of these already exist ], --if-- that's the trick to getting what i want. [ i suspect that it would be considered a plus by others elsewhere on the planet if such files existed for all 25 hourly zones and the several whose offset is not a multiple of 60 minutes. unlike mowing the lawn, this job well done would not have to be done again. ] it would be a really big plus if non_textual config files were eliminated, but i suspect that this is a bigger project than most folks have time for right now. [ if there is interest, since, at least, --i-- care about this, perhaps i could take this on, but i'm full_up for the next several months. however, it strikes me that this might make a useful project for some one or more of my students. any thoughts? ] ----------------------------------- thanks for letting me inquire. if anyone thinks this sufficiently worthy of either positive or negative response, please cc me as i am not subscribed to -questions. rob spellberg woodstock, illinois