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ADJKERNTZ(8)		FreeBSD	System Manager's Manual		  ADJKERNTZ(8)

NAME
     adjkerntz -- adjust the local time	CMOS clock to reflect time zone
     changes and keep the current timezone offset for the kernel

SYNOPSIS
     adjkerntz -i
     adjkerntz -a [-s]

DESCRIPTION
     The adjkerntz utility maintains the proper	relationship between the ker-
     nel clock,	which is always	set to UTC and the CMOS	clock, which may be
     set to local time.	 The adjkerntz utility also informs the	kernel about
     machine timezone shifts in	order to maintain proper timestamps for	local
     time file systems such as the MS-DOS file system.	The main purpose of
     maintaining these timestamps properly is to keep the timestamps of	a
     FreeBSD MS-DOS file system	and an MS-DOS operating	system synchronized
     when they are installed on	the same system	rather than fixing broken MS-
     DOS file timestamps.  If the file /etc/wall_cmos_clock exists, it means
     that the CMOS clock keeps local time (MS-DOS and MS-Windows compatible
     mode).  If	that file does not exist, it means that	the CMOS clock keeps
     UTC time.	The adjkerntz utility passes this state	to the
     machdep.wall_cmos_clock kernel variable.

     Adjustments may be	needed at system startup and shutdown, and whenever a
     time zone change occurs.  To handle these different situations, adjkerntz
     is	invoked	in two ways:

     -i	   This	form handles system startups and shutdowns.  The adjkerntz
	   utility is invoked with this	option from /etc/rc on entry to	multi-
	   user	mode, before any other daemons have been started.  The
	   adjkerntz utility puts itself into the background.  Then, for a lo-
	   cal time CMOS clock,	adjkerntz reads	the local time from it and
	   sets	the kernel clock to the	corresponding UTC time.	 The adjkerntz
	   utility also	stores the local time zone offset in the
	   machdep.adjkerntz kernel variable, for use by subsequent invoca-
	   tions of 'adjkerntz -a' and by local	time file systems.

	   For a local time CMOS clock 'adjkerntz -i' pauses and remains inac-
	   tive	as a background	daemon until it	receives a SIGTERM.  The
	   SIGTERM will	normally be sent by init(8) when the system leaves
	   multi-user mode (usually, because the system	is being shut down).
	   After receiving the SIGTERM,	adjkerntz reads	the UTC	kernel clock
	   and updates the CMOS	clock, if necessary, to	ensure that it re-
	   flects the current local time zone.	Then adjkerntz exits.

     -a	[-s]
	   This	form is	used to	update the local time CMOS clock and kernel
	   machdep.adjkerntz variable when time	zone changes occur, e.g., when
	   entering or leaving daylight	savings	time.  The adjkerntz utility
	   uses	the kernel clock's UTC time, the previously stored time	zone
	   offset, and the changed time	zone rule to calculate a new time zone
	   offset.  It stores the new offset into the machdep.adjkerntz	kernel
	   variable and	updates	the wall CMOS clock to the new local time.  If
	   'adjkerntz -a' was started at a nonexistent time (during a timezone
	   change), it exits with a warning diagnostic unless the -s option
	   was used, in	which case adjkerntz sleeps 30 minutes and tries
	   again.

	   This	form should be invoked from root's crontab(5) every half hour
	   between midnight and	5am, when most modern time zone	changes	occur.
	   Warning: do not use the -s option in	a crontab(5) command line, or
	   multiple 'adjkerntz -a' instances could conflict with each other.

     The adjkerntz utility clears the kernel timezone structure	and makes the
     kernel clock run in the UTC time zone.  Super-user	privileges are re-
     quired for	all operations.

ENVIRONMENT
     TZ		 Time zone change rule,	see tzset(3); not needed when
		 tzsetup(8) or zic(8) is used.

FILES
     /etc/localtime	   Current zoneinfo file, see tzsetup(8) and zic(8).
     /etc/wall_cmos_clock  Empty file.	Its presence indicates that the	ma-
			   chine's CMOS	clock is set to	local time, while its
			   absence indicates a UTC CMOS	clock.

DIAGNOSTICS
     No	diagnostics.  If an error occurs, adjkerntz logs an error message via
     syslog(3) and exits with a	nonzero	return code.

SEE ALSO
     tzset(3), crontab(5), mount_msdosfs(8), rc(8), sysctl(8), tzsetup(8),
     zic(8)

HISTORY
     The adjkerntz utility appeared in FreeBSD 1.0.

AUTHORS
     Andrey A. Chernov <ache@astral.msk.su>

FreeBSD	13.0			 March 8, 2012			  FreeBSD 13.0

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | ENVIRONMENT | FILES | DIAGNOSTICS | SEE ALSO | HISTORY | AUTHORS

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