In <[log in to unmask]> [log in to unmask] writes:

> All this discussion concerning the setting and changing of the system
> clocks has started me thinking and that in itself is scary.  Here in Maryland,
> USA we just sprang the clocks forward 1 hour to Eastern Daylight Time.

Hey, they did here in Virginia too! ;-)

> The only process we did was to run the utility SETCLOCK with the parm
> of TIMEZONE=W4:00   The system clock moved immediately and the clock which
> is read by Speedware also is correct.  AND when I run the program
> SHOWCLKS.PUBXL.TELESUP all looks good with GMT and MPE System Time and the
> offset.  But, the current value of Time Zone(TZ) variable is NOT ASSIGNED
>
> Am I missing something, why should we concern ourselves with the TZ value?
> I do believe this has never been assigned and things seem fine.

Here's what we do;

we created a file in pub.sys called "tz". It's a one-line file;

SETVAR TZ "EST5EDT"

We then added a :XEQ TZ.PUB.SYS to all our system's option logon UDCs.

also, our auto-changing timezone job (as posted on the list by Frank the other
day) does the following (slightly modified from what was posted):

!if hpday = 1 and hpmonth = 10 and hpdate > 24 then
!  SETCLOCK TIMEZONE = W5:00
!  FILE TIMEFILE=TZ.PUB.SYS,OLD
!  ECHO SETVAR TZ "EST5EST" > *TIMEFILE
!  TELLOP *********************************************
!  TELLOP Changing the system clock to STANDARD TIME.
!  TELLOP The clock will S L O W   D O W N until
!  TELLOP we have fallen back one hour.
!  TELLOP *********************************************
!elseif hpday = 1 and hpmonth = 4 and hpdate < 8 then
!  SETCLOCK TIMEZONE = W4:00
!  FILE TIMEFILE=TZ.PUB.SYS,OLD
!  ECHO SETVAR TZ "EST5EDT" > *TIMEFILE
!  TELLOP *********************************************
!  TELLOP Changing the system clock to DAYLIGHT TIME.
!  TELLOP The clock jumped ahead one hour.
!  TELLOP *********************************************
!endif

That (in addition to setting the timezone offset in the clock) takes care
of the TZ variable. Set it up once and never worry about it again. :-)

               -Chris Bartram

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