Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cornell!uw-beaver!rice!sun-spots-request
From: auspex!guy@uunet.uu.net (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: Changing Timezones in SunOS 4.0
Message-ID: <797@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 12 Jan 89 15:49:20 GMT
References: <50@gaia.oz>
Sender: usenet@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
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Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
Original-Date: 4 Jan 89 22:36:03 GMT
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 7, Issue 98, message 2 of 13

>Once the timezone has been set for a system under version 4.0 is it
>possible to change it to something else without re-installing the OS.

"Change it" in what sense?  If you have to change the rules, you can do
that without reinstalling the OS; just edit the appropriate "source" file
("/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/australasia", in your case) to reflect the new
rules, and run "zic -l <local time zone name>".  See ZIC(8).

Oh yes, and when you've changed the rules, please:

	1) let your local Sun office know, and ask them to send the
	   changes back to Mountain View;

	2) mail the updated version, along with an explanation, to
	   "...!uunet!elsie!ado", the guy who created the "read the rules
	   files" stuff in the first place, so he can let everybody
	   *else* using that stuff know.

If you want to change which zone you're in, just run "zic -l <local time
zone name>", or if you like changing the oil yourself, remove the link
"/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/localtime" and relink it to the appropriate time
zone file.

Any programs started after the "zic" run will pick up the new rules; any
programs (such as daemons, e.g. "cron") started before then will have to
be restarted (unless they haven't read the file yet, but that's unlikely
to be the case).

(Moderator:)
>What an odd question!  Do timezones move all that often in the "land
>down under"?

Move, I don't know, but *change*, definitely.  That's probably why Robert
Elz, an Australian, was one of the people involved in developing the "read
the rules file" stuff, along with Arthur Olson ("...!elsie!ado"), and a
cast of ones.  Read through "/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/australasia" for some
interesting commentary.

>If it is a fix that only needs to be done once, are you all
>that upset about remaking the system?

Actually, you don't have to remake anything, now that the rules are
encoded in files.

[[ Bizarre!  --wnl ]]