time zone question

[Bill Campbell]

On Fri, Jan 07, 2011, Jean-Pierre A. Radley wrote:
>Richard Kreiss propounded (on Fri, Jan 07, 2011 at 01:11:37PM -0500):
>| Client with people logging in across the country using Terminal Server.
>| Windows Server
>| 
>| Server located in New York
>| 
>| Login from California
>| 
>| Program time stamps when certain files are added.  Is the time used the time
>| on the server which was logged in to or the local time of the computer
>| logging in?
>
>Gedankenexperiment:
>One computer, one login.
>Find the timestamp for some file.
>Change the copmputer's timezone.
>What should now be seen as the timestamp?
>
>Create a new file, observe its timezone.
>Revert the computer's timezone to what it was.
>Check the timestamp of that new file.
>
>Alternate experiment:
>Be on the phone with a user across the country.  
>Compare the timezone each of you sees for the same file.

The time displayed with 'ls -l' or equivalent will normally be in
the local time zone (e.g. PST here).

In your last experiment, viewing the same file, if it's mounted
to the local system with AFS, NFS, etc., it should display with
the local computer's time zone.

This is generally true on *nix systems, but may differ with
Windows, particularly if the system is installed using localtime
instead of UTC (nee Greenwich Mean Time) in the system clock.

Bill
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