> > Well, to speak for those on the other side, I prefer our logfiles
> > to be in local timezone. While GMT is universal, we do 99% of our
> > logfile analysis with respect to local timezones, and it would be
> > horribly obnoxious to always have to convert timezones, especially
> > when looking through thousands of logfile entries.
>
> Exim can write the log in UTC, and then it's a simple matter of
> converting from UTC to any timezone. The logfile can be shared
> among different timezones, and each viewer can view the logs files
> in their own time zone, by passing the logs through a converter
> utility, that honours the TZ variable. And then, someone can view
> the logs in _any_ timezone, simply by setting the variable accordingly.
Well, true, but the same could be argued for keeping it in it's
current local timezone format. That is, if you want to view times in
UTC, then simply pipe the logfile through your converter utility.
This discussion is going to be, of course, one of deeply splintered
opinions. Those who work with Exim on a day to day basis with
thousands of users are going to be used to dealing with things in a
certain way, whether it be UTC or localtime.
A mail system is one that inherently deals with time stamps a *lot*.
The real issue of the discussion is not so much should logfiles be
logged in UTC; rather, it's about whether Exim should give the
administrator a *choice* in timezone format.
While logging in GMT/UTC is "elegant" and is also "right", it is not
convenient, nor is it practical when things are going awry and you
have to match up times (for whatever reason) very quickly.
As long as the option remains in Exim to be able to specify the local
timezone, I'm happy. The default could (and probably should) be GMT/UTC
though.
Regards, Dean
--
Dean A. Brooks Email: dean@???
IgLou Internet Services, Inc. Voice: (502) 966-3848
Louisville, KY / USA (800) 436-4456
