Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!virtech!cpcahil
From: cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: want PST clock not EST in ix/386
Message-ID: <1990Mar13.023749.4613@virtech.uucp>
Date: 13 Mar 90 02:37:49 GMT
References: <9003092109.AA09255@decwrl.dec.com> <21@usaos.UUCP> <1990Mar11.231937.15412@virtech.uucp> <22@usaos.UUCP>
Reply-To: cpcahil@virtech.UUCP (Conor P. Cahill)
Organization: Virtual Technologies Inc., Sterling VA
Lines: 27

In article <22@usaos.UUCP> root@usaos.UUCP (Warren Calhoun) writes:
>In article <1990Mar11.231937.15412@virtech.uucp>, cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) writes:
>> Placing the TZ stuff into the /etc/TIMEZONE file does in fact solve the 
>> problem, but it is not because the /etc/bcheckrc file reads the file.  It
>> is because /etc/init reads the file and processes (places into its 
>> environment) all the VAR=junk lines.  You could almost say that /etc/TIMEZONE
>> acts as an 'rc' file for init.
>
>I suppose that it's possible that I misunderstood my bcheckrc file.  Why, then
>is the . /etc/TIMEZONE line in it and why does /etc/TIMEZONE export the TZ
>variable if init does it directly?

Who knows?  It is probably an old mechanism that was in place before init
read the /etc/TIMEZONE file.  Or it may be an indication that some time
in the future init might not read the file.  Or it could be that they want
to make sure that even if there are too many variables in the TIMEZONE file
for init to process (according to Guy Harris the count was 5 in System V R3.1)
the shell would get it right.

BTW - you will find that there probably are lots of shells in the system
that source the /etc/TIMEZONE file including /etc/profile and /etc/rc2,
probably for the same reason as /etc/bcheckrc.

-- 
Conor P. Cahill            (703)430-9247        Virtual Technologies, Inc.,
uunet!virtech!cpcahil                           46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160
                                                Sterling, VA 22170