[CentOS] UTC vs local time

Thu Aug 23 10:23:21 UTC 2007
Steve Berg <sberg at mississippi.com>

Simon Jolle wrote:
> Hi list
>
> I always configure my systems to use our local time (in my case
> /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich) and disable UTC.
>
> What are the differences between UTC and local time? What are their
> respective advantages and disadvantages?
>
> When to use UTC?
>
> cheers
> Simon
>
>   
Not sure if Zurich has any sort of Daylight Savings like we do here in 
the US but that is one good reason to use UTC.  Since our clocks shift 
by an hour twice a year it can make log files confusing and have other 
side effects.  Using UTC you get a standard time that never shifts.  
(Except for the odd leap second every so often.)  Personally I use UTC 
on my home system and let my shell convert it to my local time zone.  
For servers that I manage I always use UTC to avoid the one hour shifts 
of DST.