> Agreed. There is a mechanism for this already (in case you haven't found it):
> check out warp_clock() in kernel/time.c. My tiny ktzset package
> (ftp://ftp.lst.de/pub/LST/misc/) seeks this routine explicitly without
> interfering with kernel<->RTC r/w precision. I wouldn't mind if there was a
> sysctl for this.
>
> Back to Philip's suggestion. I feel it's good as long as some points are
> satisfied:
>
> 1. "minuteswest" suggests the proper granularity -- there exist
> 15-minute-timezones on this planet.
>
> 2. the sysctl must co-exist with the warp_clock()-hack for obvious
> backward compatibility (we have a few users out there...)
>
> 3. a reasonable representation for "unknown" must be found. -1 won't do,
> because it's obviously a valid "minuteswest" value.
>
> I would suggest two variables: a numeric "minuteswest" value and an
> "rtc_timezone" enum for {utc=0, localtime=1, unknown=-1}.
>
> Keep in mind that there is another reason for kernel timezone information:
> some sick so-called filesystems record mtime in localtime (FAT, HPFS, ...?).
Does anybody want to work on that? I foresee that I'll be short of
time soon...
Ulrich