From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 28 22:03:47 2011 Return-Path: Delivered-To: hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92EB9106566B for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:03:47 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from dteske@vicor.com) Received: from postoffice.vicor.com (postoffice.vicor.com [69.26.56.53]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CDDF8FC08 for ; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:03:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [208.206.78.30] (port=51871 helo=dt.vicor.com) by postoffice.vicor.com with esmtpsa (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 4.74) (envelope-from ) id 1Q4KX7-0004YA-NE; Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:03:35 -0700 From: Devin Teske To: dieterbsd@engineer.com In-Reply-To: <8CDBBA132D81656-11D4-4261@web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com> References: <8CDBBA132D81656-11D4-4261@web-mmc-d02.sysops.aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Vicor, Inc Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:03:44 -0700 Message-Id: <1301349824.26028.47.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.0.2 (2.0.2-41.el4) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Scan-Signature: 0eaa64d1205dca35787182f988024f21 X-Scan-Host: postoffice.vicor.com Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Keeping /etc/localtime up-to-date X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2011 22:03:47 -0000 On Mon, 2011-03-28 at 16:52 -0400, dieterbsd@engineer.com wrote: > >>> And while I (think I) recall that the equivalent of /etc/localtime > >>> was implemented in some version of SunOS many years ago as a > symlink, > >>> I believe that approach could be problematic for FreeBSD, as it > >>> could impose some unintended requirements on some of the start-up > >>> scripts. > >> > >> I have been running FreeBSD and NetBSD with /etc/localtime being > >> a symlink for years and have not seen any problems as a result. > > > > The one (and only) problem that I've seen from using a symlink for > > /etc/localtime is that -- since the /usr partition is not mounted > > early-on -- boot messages get logged in GMT offset until /usr is > mounted. > > > > However, some simply ignore this. > > What boot messages are these? The messages generated during boot -- see /var/log/messages. > grep 2011 /var/run/dmesg.boot Those aren't the boot messages I'm referring to (and by convention, I would call those the "kernel boot messages" as only the kernel messages are found there). > Copyright (c) 1992-2011 The FreeBSD Project. > FreeBSD 8.2-RELEASE #9: Sun Mar 6 18:47:36 pst 2011 Huh? Please help me understand why you'd grep for "2011" in the context of this topic (timezone differences). Here's an impirical test: 1. Put your BIOS into GMT 2. Make /etc/localtime a symbolic link to /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Los_Angeles 3. Reboot In our experience, the "Regents of the University of California" message is logged to /var/log/messages in GMT and subsequent messages (produced after /usr is mounted) are logged in the desired timezone. NOTE: This assumes that "/" and "/usr" are separate partitions. -- Devin