[systemd-bugs] [Bug 81538] Allow to disable setting the kernel time zone

[bugzilla-daemon at freedesktop.org]

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=81538

--- Comment #4 from Nicolas George <george at nsup.org> ---
> - Teach systemd to update the kernel's TZ when DST changes; it is in the
>   TODO, infrastruture for it is there, just not implemented. It will not be
>   entirely race-free though, not sure if we really should try that ...

I believe that IF setting the kernel timezone is considered necessary, then
updating it is undoubtedly the Right Thing.

But that will not help for filesystems timestamps: the kernel uses a
constant offset for the whole filesystem, and due to DST roughly half the
files are in the wrong timezone. Updating the timezone will only change what
offset is used: the one at boot time or the one at mount time.

> - Define that "local" is the time without DST, we just upload the
>   local time without the DST offset; that way the kernel's "local" might
>   be off by an hour, but still closer than UTC and not jumping. Very simple
>   and maybe a reasonable compromise. not sure.

I find this has the feel of a half measure. Also, it does not work when the
timezone changes for another reason (this is an argument I had not used
before), such as someone traveling (and updating the config accordingly) to
a different timezone.

> - Define that the kernel's "local" is so backwards, that the file systems,
>   SCSI, netfilter are just too broken to be supported that way; that we just
>   ignore all ideas of "local" and define the use UTC and accept hickups
>   for multi-OS boots. Sounds a bit radical, but the most appealing of all
>   options, to just not support that kind of stupidity in 2014.

I wholeheartedly support that solution, but I may be biassed by the facts
that I do not interact much with other OSes and that CET/CEST are not far
from UTC.

Concerning netfilter, if I read the doc correctly the kernel timezone is not
used by default and “using --kerneltz is highly discouraged” (in bold).

Thanks for taking an interest.

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