TZCONFIG(8)		 Debian Timezone Configuration		   TZCONFIG(8)



NAME
       tzconfig - set the local timezone

SYNOPSIS
       tzconfig

DESCRIPTION
       This  manual  page explains how you can use the tzconfig utility to set
       the local timezone. This is necessary to let your system know about the
       difference  between  system  time  and local time (the time in the real
       world). It is also necessary to make your  system  behave  nicely  when
       your location uses Daylight Savings Time.

       A valid system time together with the correct local time zone will give
       you best performance and highest reliability. It is  especially	impor
       tant  in  a  network environment, where even small time differences can
       make a mirror refetch a whole ftp site, or where time stamps on	exter
       nal file systems are used.

       tzconfig  is  called  without  any  parameters from the shell. First it
       presents the current setting and asks for verification to change it.

       You may press Ctrl-C to interrupt the script at any time.

       After you made your choice, tzconfig will try to  change  the  timezone
       for  you.  See  the  Internals section below for technical details. You
       must have root privileges to actually change anything. Please use tzse
       lect(1)	as a user space command to just look at the timezones. It will
       print the local time in any timezone recognized by the system.

A WORD OF WARNING
       What timezone is correct for your system? It depends on the  geographi
       cal  location  of  the machine.	Getting the correct location is impor
       tant, but the system must also know how your  hardware  clock  is  set.
       Most  DOS  based PCs set their hardware clock on Local Time, while most
       UNIX systems set their hardware clock to UTC.

       The Debian GNU/Linux system gains its knowledge of  this  setting  from
       the file /etc/default/rcS.  This file contains either the line UTC=yes,
       which indicates that the hardware clock is set to UTC, or  it  contains
       the  line  UTC=no,  which  declares  the hardware clock is set to Local
       Time. If these setting are correct, and the hardware clock is truly set
       as indicated, then configuring the proper timezone for the machine will
       cause the proper date and time to be displayed. If these  are  not  set
       correctly,   the  the  reported	time  will  be	quite  incorrect.  See
       hwclock(8) for more details on this topic.


Internals
       The work done by tzconfig is actually pretty simple. It just copies the
       correct	timezone  installed  in /usr/share/zoneinfo/ to /etc/localtime
       and puts the name of the timezone into /etc/timezone.

       There is nothing wrong with doing this manually. However, using	tzcon
       fig you dont have to remember the path to the timezones.

FILES
       /etc/timezone  /etc/localtime  /usr/share/zoneinfo

SEE ALSO
       hwclock(8) tzselect(1) rcS(5)

AUTHOR
       Copyright  1998	Marcus Brinkmann   Edits Copyright
       1998 Dale Scheetz 

       Please see nroff source for legal notice.










Debian				 12 June 1998			   TZCONFIG(8)