Hello, Christian Perrier forwarded me the question, as a longtime Solaris and OpenSolaris user, so let me try to shed more light on this.
The executive summary is, yes, by default, on *x86* systems, both Solaris and OpenSolaris considers the system clock to be the local time. The longer explanation: This is a very old convention, that probably dates back from when Sun acquired Interactive Unix for i386/i486 systems, to merge it into Solaris and make it Solaris x86. The manual dates back at least from Solaris 2.4 in 1994: http://docs.sun.com/app/docs/doc/801-6680-1M/6i11qf54j?l=en&a=view I'm not sure how the Debian installer works on SPARC, and if it allows multiboot there, but this feature is x86 only. Solaris SPARC, and most probably the upcoming OpenSolaris SPARC use UTC, as shown in rtc(1M): DESCRIPTION On x86 systems, the rtc command reconciles the difference in the way that time is established between UNIX and MS-DOS systems. UNIX systems utilize Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), while MS-DOS systems utilize local time. The rtc command is run in the crontab at 02:01 every day. It's a no-op on SPARC. On x86, when it's the day for changing the time, it adjusts the system time accordingly so it stays on local time, and keeps track there of the time difference between system time and UTC. Thus in CET, I have: zone_info=Europe/Paris zone_lag=-3600 And in CEST, it's: zone_info=Europe/Paris zone_lag=-7200 Yes, as has been pointed out, it's definitely an issue if the system isn't up when the time changes. It will only be updated on the next time the command is run, which can take a while depending on the conditions the system is run. Also, the system can be set to UTC manually, but it's not very common practice, even on Sun x86 hardware. FWIW, there's an open bug about this, but I don't think it'll go anywhere fast: http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6395979 And yes, it's clunky, and has been the cause of at least one bad issue: http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6247281 I wouldn't point a finger at anybody for the blame. When it was introduced, MS-DOS compatibility was important. It still is, and both the PC hardware manufacturers and the leading operating system vendor consider the BIOS time is the local time. Probably the real error was by IBM of not putting an RTC in its first PC, then defaulting it to local in the XT or AT. But who would have guessed? However, MS-DOS wasn't changing the time by itself, whereas nowadays, every OS does it automatically, which is a problem with several systems installed, and one of them is inheriting from MS-DOS. Laurent > ----- Forwarded message from Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----- > > Subject: Bug#504590: clock-setup: OpenSolaris uses local time by default > Reply-To: Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2008 12:26:56 +0000 > From: Colin Watson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > X-Mailing-List: <debian-boot@lists.debian.org> archive/latest/135870 > X-CRM114-Status: Good ( pR: 43.0249 ) > > Package: clock-setup > Version: 0.97 > Severity: normal > Tags: patch > User: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Usertags: origin-ubuntu ubuntu-patch jaunty > > Apparently OpenSolaris uses local time by default rather than UTC. This > was reported as > https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/clock-setup/+bug/279065, and, > while I found this surprising (as noted in the comments on that bug), > the configuration file quoted there contains a comment that seems to be > adequate evidence. I suggest the attached patch; comments? > -- / Leader de Projet & Communauté | I'm working, but not speaking for \ G11N http://fr.opensolaris.org | Bull Services http://www.bull.com / FOSUG http://guses.org | -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
