why can't i turn off fast_time?

[spellberg_robert]

greetings, all ---

as long as folks are paying attention to
   this whole time zone foolishness
   foisted on us by congress
   [ as if they don't have --real-- work to do; but, i digress ],
   it seems to be a good time to inquire about my pet peeve.

please note:
   this is the --one-- thing about freebsd
   that --really--, and i mean --really--, hacks me off.

i have yet to figure out
   how to turn off the warm_weather fast_time bug^h^h^hfeature.

i am outside chicago, so i am six hours earlier than london.

i choose to not observe fast_time any more than absolutely necessary.
twice a year,
   these nimrods in washington actually expect me to
   drop what i am doing and
   go around everywhere and
   change the clocks.
to put not too fine a point on it, i refuse.
[ quite by accident,
     i discovered that this eliminates what i call "solar_shock".
   now, when others grumble on monday
     about the sun not being where it was on friday,
     i laugh.
]

the first thing i did was to rtfm.
then, i selected a box on which to experiment.

the method that seems to work most successfully is
   to tell the box it's in arizona.
this would be great if i were in, say, laramie, but,
   i haven't moved there, yet.
so, it's a little irritating.

then, i thought i would be exceedingly clever
   by creating the missing file
   that would be logically found between arizona and indiana,
   using those files as templates.
surprise, surprise, they're in binary; just like --windoze--.
having read eric raymond's "art of unix programming",
   i agree completely that
   configuration files should be in human_readable form,
   not encoded in binary, mega_corp style.
i have put off playing with this approach.

last, i tried the environment variable trick,
   both for the local zone and for utc
   [ surely, i can make the box do everything in utc, i thought ].
sha_ZAM!!!
i thought i had struck the mother_lode.
everything was working just as i wanted.
i smiled smugly to myself.

euphoric,
   i arose from my throne [ no, silly, the other one ],
   outstretched my arm and commanded "shutdown -h now".

alas, logged messages were timestamped off by one hour.
i was crestfallen.

this suggests that the mobo clock is on utc [ or something ],
   fbsd is kloodging this into local fast_time and, then,
   the environment variable is re_kloodging the kloodge
   to display what i want to see,
   but shutdown doesn't honor the re_kloodge.
or some such.

this is the point where i gave up.

i recount the above from memory.
the last time i tried to get this right was about a year ago.

windoze gets this right
   [ this is one of the few times when i prefer windoze;
       think about this
   ].
i cam select a time_zone, then uncheck the "observe fast_time" box.
no problem.
but, my 'nix boxen have their own agenda.

i solved this by setting them to what displays as utc and
   what produces the right epoch_offset,
   then i calculate the correct timestamps myself in my apps.
i simply accept that my timestamps are right and
   some of the system generated timestamps are wrong.
c'est la guerre.

------------------------------------------

i wouldn't bother writing except that congress decided to meddle,
   so some really_smart_people are paying attention.

all i want is
   to be able to set my boxes to utc, with no fast_time, and
   to have my apps and all of the other apps agree on what the clock says,
   at --all-- times.

it would be a plus if
   there were binary files for the 4 contiguous us time_zones
   [ 2 of these already exist ],
   --if-- that's the trick to getting what i want.
[ i suspect that
     it would be considered a plus by others elsewhere on the planet if
     such files existed for all 25 hourly zones and
     the several whose offset is not a multiple of 60 minutes.
   unlike mowing the lawn,
     this job well done would not have to be done again.
]

it would be a really big plus if
   non_textual config files were eliminated, but
   i suspect that this is a bigger project than
   most folks have time for right now.
[ if there is interest,
     since, at least, --i-- care about this,
     perhaps i could take this on,
     but i'm full_up for the next several months.
   however,
     it strikes me that this might make a useful project for
     some one or more of my students.
   any thoughts?
]

-----------------------------------

thanks for letting me inquire.

if anyone thinks this sufficiently worthy of
   either positive or negative response,
   please cc me as i am not subscribed to -questions.



rob spellberg
woodstock, illinois