KGSIssue Time Zones

KGSIssue - Time Zones

The new gmt-tag feature in the kgs client causes some trouble with timezones on some linux (unix?) systems. The reason for this is that java sometimes selects the wrong timezone^[1]. There is a bug filed for this issue^[2].

There are no known, to me, good workarounds for this problem.

If you only use java there are ways to deal with it. I've found javaws (java webstart) to be more troublesome - in fact the only workaround that seems to work for me (Ubuntu Gutsy, java 1.6.0_03) is the first intrusive solution listed below.

Intrusive solutions

Make /etc/localtime a symlink

This is the only working solution that I've found for javaws
Solution courtesy of Christian Assig

sudo cp /etc/localtime /etc/localtime.bak
sudo ln -s -f /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Stockholm /etc/localtime

Remove the symlink /usr/share/zoneinfo/localtime

This solution is likely to break something.
Solution courtesy of Christian Assig

sudo rm /usr/share/zoneinfo/localtime

Non-intrusive solutions

Solutions courtesy of SUN

Set the TZ environment variable

Set TZ to the correct timezone

bash

export TZ="Europe/Stockholm"
java myapp

Pass timezone as argument to java

pass -Duser.timezone=Europe/Stockholm with the correct timezone

Qoute the timezone (RedHat only?)

make sure /etc/sysconfig/clock ZONE variable has quote around the value

[1] A good (technical) description of the problem can be found here
[2] The relevant bug in Suns bugtracker can be found here