Wierd time changes

[Dan Nelson]

In the last episode (Mar 09), Mark Ovens said:
> The time it comes up with at the next boot (irrespective of how long
> after the shutdown this is) is *exactly* the time it recorded (in
> /var/log/messages) at the previous shutdown. Note that the system clock 
> doesn't get changed until after the reboot (as long as I reset it before 
> rebooting - if you see what I mean)
> 
> From the /var/log/messages fragment I originally posted (my comments in 
> [...]:
> 
> Feb 11 16:17:28 redshift reboot: rebooted by root
> Feb 11 16:17:28 redshift syslogd: exiting on signal 15
> 
> [The above two lines show the correct date/time]
> 
> Feb 11 20:19:10 redshift syslogd: kernel boot file is /boot/kernel/kernel
> 
> [Where did 20:19:10 come from!!!!]

Note that some systems, especially docked laptops, preserve their
memory contents when shut down.  I'm guessing this is just the part of
the kernel message buffer recording lines printed after syslogd exited. 
They would then get printed by syslogd on the next bootup, with the
current timestamp (since the message buffer does not timestamp
individual lines).

> [about an hour elapsed between the above shutdown and this reboot]
> [note that the logged date/time is the same though implying that]
> [FreeBSD has stored the (incorrect) previous shutdown time and is]
> [now restoring it]

So the real question is: why did the system's clock jump by 4 hours
when only 1 hour had elapsed?

-- 
	Dan Nelson
	dnelson at allantgroup.com