[ntp:questions] Automatic time synchronization of local hw clock.

Rob nomail at example.com
Tue Apr 15 08:07:13 UTC 2014


Phil W Lee <phil at lee-family.me.uk> wrote:
> David Taylor <david-taylor at blueyonder.co.uk.invalid> considered Tue,
> 15 Apr 2014 07:32:48 +0100 the perfect time to write:
>
>>On 15/04/2014 07:24, William Unruh wrote:
>>[]
>>> No, I meant that Windows at least did (pre Win7?) use local time as
>>> system time.
>>> And I seem to recall that even now it can use localtime as systemtime.
>>> But I do not run Windows so cannot test anything.
>>
>>Win-32 (i.e. Windows NT and later) uses UTC as the internal system time.
>
> Yes, certainly since NT3.51, which is as long as I've been playing
> with it.
> Given that my experience has included setting up intercontinental
> domains, I'm pretty confident on that.

Of course the conversion to localtime still sucks.
All files are timestamped in UTC, and when you make a directory listing
it converts the UTC time to localtime using the offset currently in
effect, instead of the offset in effect at the date the file was modified.
So, when you modify a file at 12:00 in winter, it shows 13:00 in summer.
In Linux this works OK.  The time conversion routines in GLIBC are much
better than those in Windows.



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