[nmglug] Time and cron jobs

[Gary Sandine]

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 12:38 -0700, Mars DeLapp wrote:
> So what does /etc/timezone do?
> 
> I used to have a /etc/timezone file and now it appears to be
> renamed /etc/timezone.bak, but I did not do that.
> 
> Looking at some other boxes also running Debian, they
> have /etc/timezone files and no symlink.

Without reading anything about it (going only by the behavior I have
seen), my Debian systems have both.  When certain packages are upgraded
(e.g. glibc), the /etc/localtime symlink gets recreated, pointing to
what is specified in the text file /etc/timezone.  I don't know what
will happen if there is no /etc/timezone file.  There's also a variable
UTC defined in /etc/default/rcS that specifies whether or not the
hardware clock is set to UTC (UTC=yes or UTC=no).

AFAICT the /etc/localtime symlink (together with BIOS clock set to UTC
and with UTC=yes in /etc/default/rcS) makes date report the correct time
zone and the correct time in my Debian computers.