From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Jan 21 0:26: 4 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from lists.blarg.net (lists.blarg.net [206.124.128.17]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 034CC37B417 for ; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:26:01 -0800 (PST) Received: from thig.blarg.net (thig.blarg.net [206.124.128.18]) by lists.blarg.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id B0990BCEA; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:26:00 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost.localdomain ([206.124.139.115]) by thig.blarg.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id AAA02976; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:26:00 -0800 Received: (from jojo@localhost) by localhost.localdomain (8.11.6/8.11.3) id g0L8TNl00702; Mon, 21 Jan 2002 00:29:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from swear@blarg.net) To: Cliff Sarginson Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: How to change a FreeBSD clock time References: <002501c1a0d2$6682a9a0$0301a8c0@wintellect.com> <20020119102526.GA5105@raggedclown.net> <20020120110618.U60575@wantadilla.lemis.com> <20020120071937.GA1341@raggedclown.net> From: swear@blarg.net (Gary W. Swearingen) Date: 21 Jan 2002 00:29:23 -0800 In-Reply-To: <20020120071937.GA1341@raggedclown.net> Message-ID: Lines: 39 User-Agent: Gnus/5.0808 (Gnus v5.8.8) XEmacs/21.1 (Cuyahoga Valley) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Cliff Sarginson writes: > I think it is interesting that someone says a PR should be raised > against something in FreeBSD, that is the same in all Unix systems > but is different in Linux. What is probably the problem here is that > coming from Linux to FreeBSD carries with it the assumption, perhaps > understandably, that somehow everything on both systems is sort of the > same. That surely is a common problem, but it's not the only problem. Some FreeBSD newbies have never used any unixy OS. Some, like me have used many, but never had the authority to set the time and never learned how. I try to look at man pages and other documentation from the viewpoint of someone who needs it, not as someone who can often guess how it works from their long experience. There are at least two clocks on these systems. The "date" command only reports the value of one of them and it's not a bad assumption that it only sets the one that it reports. I just don't understand why people so often object to a man page being made less unambiguous or more helpful. > What is called for is probably not a PR for the date page, but > someone to create some kind of brief list of surprises for Linux users > coming to FreeBSD. It would have never have occurred to me that a Linux > user would not know about the "date" command, but that is because I > have worked on Unix systems for a long time. When I first started > looking at Linux this hwclock stuff suprised me ! I think I've seen a list or two like that, but they're 're only as good as your ability and interest in memorizing them and should only be a suppliment to decent documentation that explains what FreeBSD does without the need for guessing and experimentation that is so commonly needed in unix. (I had access to a bookcase full of good DEC VAX documenation for several years, and remember it perhaps too fondly.) > Btw "apropos time" does throw up the "date" command. Sorry, I DID look for it, but missed it in that long, messy scroll. A lot of newbies wouldn't have the patience to examine it, I'll bet. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message