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From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386
Subject: Re: want PST clock not EST in ix/386
Message-ID: <3040@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 14 Mar 90 18:25:18 GMT
References: <1990Mar10.144953.4013@virtech.uucp> <3022@auspex.auspex.com> <1990Mar13.060431.20818@wilbur.uucp>
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 35

>/bin/login reads the file /etc/default/login, looking for a line starting
>with "TIMEZONE=".  If it finds one, it sets TZ=<rest of line>.  Thus, login
>will not preserve TZ.

That's appallingly dumb of it.  I presume you're discussing the 386
flavor of S5, or some derivative thereof, or a release subsequent to
S5R3.1, 'cuz that "feature" ain't in the 3B2 source I mentioned. 

Unless the 386 version in question didn't manage to pick up the S5R3.1
feature of having "init" able to read "/etc/TIMEZONE" and initialize the
environment from there, either:

	by virtue of being derived from a pre-S5R3.1 base (in which
	case it should be updated to such an S5R3.1-or-later base),
	
	or by virtue of having forked off before there (demonstrating
	why it is usually a Very Bad Idea to fork off the entire
	source for a release merely because it's being built for a
	different processor),
	
there was no reason why "/etc/default/login" should have a "TIMEZONE="
entry in it, except perhaps for the convenience of sites with the
processor in one time zone and the vast majority of the users logging in
from another time zone.

If the latter is the case, then by default "/etc/default/login" should
*not* be set up to include a "TIMEZONE=" line, since I find it extremely
unlikely that the case mentioned (processor in one time zone, users in
another) is the most likely case....

The impression I've gotten is that the 386 S5's are S5R3.2-based.  I
don't know whether this little "TIMEZONE=" feature in
"/etc/default/login" snuck into S5R3.2, or was added by somebody doing
the 386 version.  In either case, it should perhaps sneak back out again
through the back door....