[arch-dev-public] [initscripts][RFC] deprecating TIMEZONE from rc.conf

[Aaron Griffin]

On Mon, May 16, 2011 at 2:21 PM, Ionut Biru <ibiru at archlinux.org> wrote:
> On 05/16/2011 09:28 PM, Tom Gundersen wrote:
>> Setting the TIMEZONE in rc.conf is a bad idea for several reasons:
>>
>>  * it requires a reboot before taking effect, for people changing
>> timezone's
>>    frequently (this is common if you travel a lot, especially annoying if
>> you
>>    have several stop overs in different timezones and want your laptop's
>> clock
>>    to be correct)
>>  * it is non-standard, so advice/guides that apply to other distro's will
>> not
>>    apply to arch
>>  * it is non-standard, so gui tools like the ones found in KDE/GNOME will
>> not
>>    be aware of the setting in rc.conf, and whatever change they do will be
>>    overwritten on next boot.
>>  * it is one of the few remaining blockers for ro /etc support in
>> initscripts

If the logic is going to be kept, would it make sense to break it out
into an rc.d script which can then be called by people who switch
timezones?

i.e.:
# /etc/rc.d/timezone America/Chicago

This would also cover the "ro /etc" thing too, as ro users could
simply remove the daemon...