Using Etc/GMT+X will be reported as GMT+X by date, but the time really computed is GMT-X (and inversely with GMT-X). This is an old glibc bug that is at least 5 years old. It seems to be due to POSIX specification and most probably won't get fixed anytime soon (if not at all). As a result Etc/ timezones should not be used, so it would be good if this problem was mentioned in the Handbook in order to avoid new users confusion. Reproducible: Always Steps to Reproduce: 1.date Fri Aug 19 17:11:40 CST 2005 (note: CST here is China time (Asia/Shanghai) which is in the GMT+8 timezone) 2.date -u Fri Aug 19 09:11:45 UTC 2005 3.TZ="Etc/GMT+8" date Fri Aug 19 01:11:54 GMT+8 2005 4.TZ="Etc/GMT+8" date -u Fri Aug 19 09:11:56 UTC 2005
In CVS. Thanks for reporting.
