ml> how does golded know about the right one? the software i'm familiar
 ml> with uses the TZUTC environment variable... set it to the proper entry
 ml> for the local clock and then run your program(s)...

 NB> It must read my system clock, which uses UTC, 

but the system clock doesn't know if it is running on UTC or local time and
it has no way of telling the software, either... it is just a clock like
that beside your bed or hanging on the wall...

 NB> whereas (I got the answer from Rob) Synchronet has a setting for 
 NB> Local Time. If you select any USA timezone, ie: CDT or CST -- 
 NB> which I am in, It seems to give the TZUTC 0000 kludge. This post 
 NB> should be fixed, as I changed Synchronet to UTC -0600. Maybe I 
 NB> found a bug, I don't know. He hasn't responded to me a second time 
 NB> yet.

this one also carries TZUTC 0000... but you're on *nix, right? unless i'm
mistaken, most *nix run the clock at UTC and adjust the displayed (and
logged in some cases) time to the local time by that offset setting... i'll
have to look again at your header again and see what time is in the message
to see if it makes sense with the TZUTC offset...

one of my downlinks in CST6CDT runs his DOS setup with the clock set to
UTC... some of his software knows about TZUTC and some does not... that
leads to some interesting goofiness when gating his messages to the
internet... what makes it interesting is that a lot of software assumes
that the clock is running in local time... so when his messages without
TZUTC in them are gated, the software assumes /my/ local timezone of
EST5EDT and adds that to the time stamp... if his message has TZUTC in it,
it is properly added to the time stamp... the below examples are all for
midnight UTC...

eg: CST6CDT local time 18:00 with TZUTC 0600
    Fidonet style   "03 Dec 12  18:00:00"
    internet style  "03 Dec 2012 18:00:00 -0600"
    when gating     "03 Dec 2012 18:00:00 -0600"
    convert to UTC  "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0000" OK

eg: CST6CDT local time 18:00 without TZUTC
    Fidonet style   "03 Dec 12  18:00:00"
    internet style  "03 Dec 2012 18:00:00 -0600"
    when gating     "03 Dec 2012 18:00:00 -0500" no TZUTC == local TZ
    convert to UTC  "03 Dec 2012 23:00:00 -0000" BAD - 1 hour short

eg: UTC time 00:00 with TZUTC 0000
    Fidonet style   "03 Dec 12  00:00:00"
    internet style  "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0000"
    when gating     "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0000"
    convert to UTC  "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0000" OK

eg: UTC time 00:00 without TZUTC
    Fidonet style   "03 Dec 12  00:00:00"
    internet style  "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0000"
    when gating     "03 Dec 2012 00:00:00 -0500" no TZUTC == local TZ
    convert to UTC  "03 Dec 2012 05:00:00 -0000" BAD - 5 hours ahead

so what happens is that when the reader's software displays the date/time
in the message, the reader see the time hopping all over the place... some
software displays the time converted to the reader's local time  while
other software displays the time converted to UTC... then there's software
that doesn't convert the time at all and simply displays what is in the
message...

you can see how the lack of TZUTC can cause some craziness... an incorrect
TZUTC will definitely cause some craziness... consider if i were in
PST8PDT... my software would be seeing no TZUTC as -0800 instead of -0500
and the time jumping would be even greater and more noticible...

)\/(ark

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