[ntp:questions] Kind of OT : GMT timezones in linux

Martin Burnicki martin.burnicki at meinberg.de
Wed Jun 27 13:14:24 UTC 2007


Stelios Koroneos wrote:

> i.e (Athens is GMT+2 plus 1 hours for Daylight savings)

If you need to specify +2 or -2 depends on how the offset has to be
specified, e.g.:
Athens time = UTC + 2h or
UTC = Athens time - 2h

The standard C library expects a value indicating how much local time is
later than UTC, e.g.:
 
# date -u; TZ=WST+2 date
Mi Jun 27 12:55:36 UTC 2007
Mi Jun 27 10:55:36 WST 2007

# date -u; TZ=EST-2 date
Mi Jun 27 12:55:54 UTC 2007
Mi Jun 27 14:55:54 EST 2007

If you spezify a positive offset this means local time is 2 hours after UTC,
i.e. if UTC is 12:55 then local time is 10:55 in the example above, so a
positive number is used for west of Greenwich.

If you spezify a negative offset this means local time is 2 hours further
than UTC, i.e. if UTC is 12:55 then local time is 14:55 in the example
above, so negative numbers are used for east of Greenwich, like Athens.

So GMT-2 is correct for Athens.

Hope this helps.

Martin
-- 
Martin Burnicki

Meinberg Funkuhren
Bad Pyrmont
Germany




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