how exactly to set timezone in /etc/localtime ?[solved]

[padoor]

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tux ramaswamy # cat /etc/localtime
TZif21Local time zone must be set--see zic manual pageTZif21Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page
<Local time zone must be set--see zic manual page>0
 Asia/Kolkata
tux ramaswamy # man zic

although i get correct time in the hwclock i get the zic message always.
/etc/localtime is as above minus the message
man zic does not say how to set the localtime file.
is there anything to be in front of Asia/kolkata which is my timezone
help needed

[khayyam]

padoor ...

You probably omitted to copy the timezone data file to /etc during the install ...

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cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime

best ... khay

[padoor]

copying timezone makes difference in the file than manually entering the time zone.
now the file reads as below.

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TZif2^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^D^@^@^@^D^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^D^@^@^@^D^@^@$
��^���^Eq^X�^�2��t^R^�^A^B^C^B^@^@R�^@^@^@^@[h^@^D^@^@MX^@      ^@^@[h^A       $
^@^@[h^A
LMT^@HMT^@BURT^@IST^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@^@
IST-5:30

and the message to set timezone has gone after cp timezone to localtime.
thanks for reply.

[Massimo B.]

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cp /usr/share/zoneinfo/Asia/Kolkata /etc/localtime

btw. why does documentation recommend to copy? Is a symlink also fine? That would better show to me what timezone is actually set without looking into the binary file.

[666threesixes666]

symlink makes more sense. pro tip, if you're dual booting xp, make xp load utc instead of setting bios to local clock. (see arch wiki) i run a symlink, works good. ive been going over this qutie a bit today.

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mkultra [ ~ ]$ date
Tue Nov  5 02:24:40 EST 2013
mkultra [ ~ ]$ ls -al /etc/localtime 
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 27 Nov  4 10:43 /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/EST5EDT

[Fitzcarraldo]

Apparently it is not always a good idea to make a symlink:

Re: time issue

On Mon, 30 May 2011 10:57:51 +0200, Florian Philipp wrote:

> The localization guide seems to be in a poor state. Copying the zoneinfo
> file from /usr/share... to /etc/localtime is not the best way to do it
> because then you miss updates. It is better to create a symlink between
> the two.

Which will break if /usr is on a separate filesystem.

> Also, instead of setting the timezone in /etc/conf.d/clock, you
> do it in /etc/timezone nowadays (change introduced in baselayout-2 if
> I'm not mistaken).

Setting it in /etc/timezone also takes care of the updates situation,
because the timezone-data ebuild automatically copies the correct file
to /etc/.


--
Neil Bothwick

http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/g ... 423#231423

[Massimo B.]

Thank you for that information.
Does that mean, setting /etc/timezone makes the ebuild maintain the binary /etc/localtime ? So having /etc/localtime -> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin will be overwritten by the ebuild anyway?
Ok, breaking with /usr on separate filesystem is a point. I don't have that. So with local /usr having that symlink should be fine with updated /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Berlin as well.

[Fitzcarraldo]

As Neil Bothwick wrote, the sys-libs/timezone-data ebuild takes care of updating /etc/localtime whenever necessary, so symlinking is just not necessary, and copying once only is fine. Have a look at the relevant part of the ebuild and you can see this:

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80 	pkg_config() {
81 	# make sure the /etc/localtime file does not get stale #127899
82 	local tz src etc_lt="${EROOT}etc/localtime"
83 	
84 	if has_version '<sys-apps/baselayout-2' ; then
85 	src="${EROOT}etc/conf.d/clock"
86 	tz=$(unset TIMEZONE ; source "${src}" ; echo ${TIMEZONE-FOOKABLOIE})
87 	else
88 	src="${EROOT}etc/timezone"
89 	if [[ -e ${src} ]] ; then
90 	tz=$(sed -e 's:#.*::' -e 's:[[:space:]]*::g' -e '/^$/d' "${src}")
91 	else
92 	tz="FOOKABLOIE"
93 	fi
94 	fi
95 	[[ -z ${tz} ]] && return 0
96 	
97 	if [[ ${tz} == "FOOKABLOIE" ]] ; then
98 	elog "You do not have TIMEZONE set in ${src}."
99 	
100 	if [[ ! -e ${etc_lt} ]] ; then
101 	# if /etc/localtime is a symlink somewhere, assume they
102 	# know what they're doing and they're managing it themselves
103 	if [[ ! -L ${etc_lt} ]] ; then
104 	cp -f "${EROOT}"/usr/share/zoneinfo/Factory "${etc_lt}"
105 	elog "Setting ${etc_lt} to Factory."
106 	else
107 	elog "Assuming your ${etc_lt} symlink is what you want; skipping update."
108 	fi
109 	else
110 	elog "Skipping auto-update of ${etc_lt}."
111 	fi
112 	return 0
113 	fi
114 	
115 	if [[ ! -e ${EROOT}/usr/share/zoneinfo/${tz} ]] ; then
116 	elog "You have an invalid TIMEZONE setting in ${src}"
117 	elog "Your ${etc_lt} has been reset to Factory; enjoy!"
118 	tz="Factory"
119 	fi
120 	einfo "Updating ${etc_lt} with ${EROOT}usr/share/zoneinfo/${tz}"
121 	[[ -L ${etc_lt} ]] && rm -f "${etc_lt}"
122 	cp -f "${EROOT}"/usr/share/zoneinfo/"${tz}" "${etc_lt}"
123 	}

However, the ebuild is clever enough to skip the automatic update of /etc/localtime if you had already symlinked it.

So, the bottom line is: symlinking brings no additional benefit and won't work anyway for people who have /usr on a separate filesystem. However, for those people who have /usr on the same partition/filesystem, symlinking won't do any harm but is no better than the once-only copying procedure.