HELP! How do I set timezone on a SUN???

[DoN Nichols]

I tried posting this directly to tjr, but my mailer didn't like his address.

tjr at cbnewsc.att.com asked:

> I have just inherited a SUN 3/60 workstation, networked to a SUN 4 fileserver.
> Unfortunately, the timezone is PDT, and I live in CDT. How can I change it??

	I had the same problem on an orphan system based on V7 unix and
the  MC68000 microprocessor.  I lived with it for a while, able to fix
anything to which I had source by using a new time library which was
posted to the net.  Of course I didn't have source to everything :-)

	A recent posting of an update to the timezone library led me to
poke around in the kernal with nm.  I found a variable named
"_timezone", if I remember properly.  I went in with adb, and examined
it (it is a long on my system).  As expected, it had the value of 480
(8*60) (number of hours west of GMT).  I changed it to 300 (for EST,
where I am).  This brought the old routines to the east coast, but for a
few weeks there was still a discrepancy between code using the new
library, and that using the old.  (Reason: There was a change in the
starting date of daylight savings time.  The old routines were waiting
till the *LAST* sunday in April, while the new ones knew that it was the
*FIRST* sunday in April. :-).

	Try using adb to just change the value in /dev/kmem first (the
core file for adb), and see if it is correct.  If so, change it in /unix
(or whatever is used as the kernal in the Sun), so you will still be
correct after reboot.

	Be sure to make a backup copy of the kernal under another name
first, in case things really get screwed up.

-----
	If you want, contact me and I will attempt to send you the new
library routines, but they are probably available from a
comp.sources.unix archive near you. name is localtime3.

  Sorry, but I can't.  I couldn't post directly to you.  If you can come
  up with an address which my mailer on milnet will swallow, I'll try.
-----

				Good Luck
				Don Nichols <nvt9001 at belvoir-emh3.army.mil>