Java ignoring Daylight Savings Time

[Jerry Feldman]

On 05/08/2009 03:52 PM, david-8uUts6sDVDvs2Lz0fTdYFQ at public.gmane.org wrote:
> I posted this problem in Sun's support forum and didn't get an answer
> there, but I finally found the solution.  But the solution is so bat-s*=
*t
> crazy, I just had to post it here.
>
> I've used Calendar, Date, and System.currentTimeMillis().  It all conve=
rts
> to one hour earlier than it should.  If it's now 8:54 EST (12:54 GMT), =
and
> the time from all of those translate to 7:54am.  Googling around I
> couldn't see a fix, but I do see clear indications that the problem is =
a
> time zone one.
>
> Here's the answer, which I found at
> http://www.velocityreviews.com/forums/t679924-p4-diagnose-why-pacific-t=
z-has-wrong-startstop-dates-for-dst-with-jdk16-on-ubuntu.html
>
> Sun's Java under Linux needs /etc/localtime to be a symbolic link to th=
e
> right timezone file under /usr/share/zoneinfo. Even if /etc/localtime i=
s
> checksum identical to the timezone file, it won't work right, because i=
t
> uses the name of the file being linked to to determine certain
> information. If /etc/localtime is NOT a symbolic link to a timezone fil=
e,
> it uses the name of the first timezone file it finds with identical
> contents to /etc/localtime.
>
> I am not impressed with this design. Who came up with that?
>
>  =20
Sun invented symbolic links. Sun invented Java.

--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
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