Date: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 09:43:14 +0200 (MET DST) From: J Wunsch <j@uriah.heep.sax.de> To: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org (FreeBSD-current users) Subject: Re: adjkerntz (was: cvs commit: src/usr.sbin/tzsetup ...) Message-ID: <199604040743.JAA19358@uriah.heep.sax.de> In-Reply-To: <199604031406.SAA04539@astral.msk.su> from "=?KOI8-R?Q?=E1=CE=C4=D2=C5=CA_=FE=C5=D2=CE=CF=D7?=" at Apr 3, 96 06:06:30 pm
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As =?KOI8-R?Q?=E1=CE=C4=D2=C5=CA_=FE=C5=D2=CE=CF=D7?= wrote: > > msdosfs? MSDOS' idea of a timezone is broken by design (i.e., it > > doesn't have an idea about it at all). Someone in Australia could > > It have an idea: local time zone. But that sucks when it comes to communication with other machines in other timezones. > > send a file with a DOS timestamp to somebody in California across the > > Internet, and the recipient will see a file that appears to be written > > ``in the future''. > > It fixed in some communication packages like DOS Zmodem from Omen. > They use timezone offset variable. Well, but that's a crock. Send a tar file over, and the contents of the tar file will have invalid timestamps. Not to speak about IP services like FTP, and the many possibilities to have timestamps hidden somewhere in the archive files. The actual problem is that there is no *inherent* timezone information along with the timestamp. (Unlike the ISO9660 file system, btw.) > > I don't see how adjkerntz should fix it. > msdosfs use adjkerntz kernel variable to calculate local timezone > for DOS files, check msdosfs sources. That's a hack. Probably the best one you can do (and note that hacks might often be useful, e.g. vfork() is another useful hack, or has at least been one in times where COW wasn't available). What if i don't use msdosfs but use mtools instead? (Like i do btw., whenever there's an occasion to handle a DOS floppy. As you could guess, this is only rarely the case for me.) What if i use my own package to export/ import DOS files? (Yes, i really wrote one as paywork years ago. It could do one thing mtools cannot do: decide whether the medium was a floppy, an fdisk-partitioned MOD, or an ``SST-01'' MOD.) > Proper DOS/Windows software sends timezone offset of your DOS > with any file times. How? There's no commonly agreed protocol. I cannot remember any DOS installation program that would even ask for a timezone? Despite, you remember all our hassles we had to undergo until all non-USA timezones ran well, can you imagine how long it would took Billyboy to get this right? :-) Don't get me wrong: i don't say adjkerntz is something totally unneeded, but it's certainly not needed for all of the ``true unix workstations''. You know, that's the class of machines i often have to handle, be it at home or for my paywork. (See the ``dangerously dedicated'' mode, too.) -- cheers, J"org joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)
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