Re: Default timezone changes in 9.1

Gavin Flower <GavinFlower@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> · Sun, 16 Dec 2012 16:35:08 +1300



    On 16/12/12 16:07, Terence Ferraro
      wrote:

    
    We recently began upgrading our clients' servers from
      9.0 -> 9.2. After a few deployments and a little digging we
      noticed that 9.0 -> 9.1 broke the use of no timezone set within
      postgresql.conf. That is, not setting the option was now
      defaulting to GMT instead of the system timezone. Unfortunately,
      this put quite a damper on our "one configuration file to rule
      them all" setup across servers located throughout various time
      zones.

      
        I obtained the commit ca4af308c32d03db5fbacb54d6e583ceb904f268
        from the git repository and have reversed it against 9.2. Though
        it didn't apply as smoothly as initially hoped; applying a few
        of the failed hunks manually allowed me to successfully compile
        9.2.1 with these changes reversed.

        
        After some (light) testing, the previous functionality of the
        system choosing the timezone at runtime seems to be functional
        again.

        
        I found this functionality invaluable and figured I'd get the
        patch (http://pastebin.com/5AyaX2RF)
        posted in case anyone else ever needs this functionality back.
        It works against 9.2.1; no guarantees on future releases of
        course and YMMV.

        
        T.J.

      
    I simply do not understand why you would _NOT_ want to store
            date/times as GMT!

              
              Storing as GMT, allows the times to be
                easily converted into whatever time zone you are in,
                also allows for times to be correctly
                  ordered irrespective of time
                  zone.

                  
                  If I make a phone call from Auckland
                    to New York at 2am NZST on Friday, then my colleague
                  is talking to me at the same time - even though it is
                  still Thursday for them!

                  
                  Cheers,

                    Gavin