TimeZoneSpec

Set time zone All versions

Under System V, Unix processes must look for the local time zone in the environment variable TZ. Because V8.12 and earlier sendmail were often run as a set-user-id root program, it cannot (and should not) trust its environment variables. Consequently, on System V machines it is necessary to use the TimeZoneSpec option to give sendmail the correct time zone information.

The forms for the TimeZoneSpec option are as follows:

O TimeZoneSpec=zoneconfiguration file (V8.7 and later)
-OTimeZoneSpec=zonecommand line (V8.7 and later)
define(`confTIME_ZONE',`zone')   ← mc configuration (V8.7 and later)
Otzoneconfiguration file (deprecated)
-otzonecommand line (deprecated)

Here, the zone is of type string and is usually three arguments in one:[430] the local abbreviation for standard time, the number of hours the local time differs from GMT, and the local abbreviation for daylight-saving time. For example, on the West Coast of the United States, you might declare:

O TimeZoneSpec=PST8PDT

If the entire TimeZoneSpec option is missing, the default is to unset (clear) the TZ environment variable (use the system default). If zone is missing, the default is to import the TZ variable from the environment. If zone is present, the time zone is set to that specified.

The system default varies depending on the operating system. For BSD Unix, it is the value returned by the gettimeofday(3) call. For SysV Unix, it is whatever was compiled into the C library (usually ...

Get sendmail, 4th Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.