[ntp:questions] Synchronizing NTP in WAN and LAN

David Woolley david at ex.djwhome.demon.co.uk.invalid
Sat May 24 18:12:03 UTC 2008


Deepak Pandian wrote:

> 
> It seems the OS reads the time zone information from a configured
> file.Is there any other protocol which can instruct the clients
> connected to it on timezone.

This depends on the OS.  Some will require a reboot after such a change, 
as the file is read into an environment variable during startup. Others 
read the file every time.  Some of those actually use a link to the file.

For Windows, there may be something in group policies management, but 
note that the timezone is a property of each user.

For Unix, any tool for remotely updating files, e.g. ftp, sftp, rsync, 
or even rsh, telnet, ssh, might be appropriate.

Note that Unix users can override the timezone in their initialisation 
scripts, and you cannot predict how they will do this.

Actually, why do you want to do this?  For a normal modern Unix system, 
using the Olsen package,  you should be setting the timezone when you 
install the system and updating the timezone database files when a 
significant legislation change changes the rules.  Note, messing with 
the timezone files yourself may mean that an upgrade fails to update the 
file you've played with.

Older Unix systems normally only need updating with legislation changes 
(provided you can specify the rules in terms of nth week or last week, 
but, unlike Olsen based systems, you cannot specify rule changes into 
the indefinite future.

For Windows, legislation changes are implemented using Windows Update.

If you are trying to move the clock an hour twice a year, with any 
operating capable of running ntpd, you are not using it properly.




More information about the questions mailing list