Timezone And Date

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When I do the date +%Z I get the timezone. Which currently is EDT.

I am sending information to another system, that says EDT is not a valid timezone. I have no way to modify the other system.

My question is – is there a way to get the non-day-lite savings time zone ?
For example EST is valid – EDT is not.

Just curious if there is an easy way already present to get a standard time zone.

Thanks, – I know weird situation the other end not supported EDT.

Jerry

9 thoughts on - Timezone And Date

  • “man date” shows a few options:

    That is, perhaps the “other system” wants some kind of numeric representation. Without knowing the recipient app on that other system, this is just a guess.

  • oops, sent too soon. thats the canonical time zone. things like CST, they aren’t globally reliable, in China, CST is China Standard Time, while in the USA its Central Standard Time. OOOPS. there’s a bunch more such conflicts in 3-letter timezones around the world, they had best be avoided.

  • Communication of time values should use UTC, not a specific time zone, unless the remote side needs to know the time zone for a specific reason.

    To get the time in a different zone, use the TZ environment var:
    TZ=UTC date

    ~ Brian Mathis
    @orev

  • Or, if for some reason you want to pass the timezone, use the GMT
    offset (e.g., -0400) rather than the three-letter abbreviations that, as noted earlier, aren’t unique.

    A better description of the context for this might also result in more focused responses.

  • It may not be what you want if you need to know the actual time zone for some reason. Different places switch to Daylight Saving or Summer time on different schedules, and you might also need to know if that location was actually in DST at the time. Using just the offset does not convey that information.

    I agree that more context is needed.

    ~ Brian Mathis
    @orev