[jcifs] timezone problems

[Christopher R. Hertel]

On Tue, Mar 09, 2004 at 12:29:55AM +0100, Julian Reschke wrote:
> Christopher R. Hertel wrote:
> >...
> >If the time being reported via SMB is based on the *server's* local time, 
> >then the client must convert the time to the *client's* local time.  To do 
> >this, it uses the server time reported in the SMB Negotiate Protocol 
> >Response.  That's that weird bozosecond timestamp.  The client must 
> >compare the server's time against its own local time to calculate the 
> >difference.
> 
> Well, no. First of all, whatever the format on the wire is, JCifs needs 
> to convert it to *UTC* (that is GMT w/o DST) first, because this is the 
> format used by Java for timestamps (at least as java.io.File and SmbFile 
> are concerned):

That's what I was saying.

If the [file] time[stamp] being reported via SMB is based on the 
*server's* local time [that is, if the SMB message contains the SMB_TIME 
and SMB_DATE as listed in FAT], then the client must convert the time [for 
display purposes] to the *client's* local time.

To do this [that is, provide the correct local time for display], it uses 
the server time reported in the SMB Negotiate Protocol Response [which is 
given as UTC based on Jan. 1 1601].

That whole thing was about how the client would give the correct local 
time from the client's perspective.

> Conversion to local timezones and DST considerations need to be done in 
> the code *on top of* JCifs (for instance, by construcing Java Date 
> objects and by formatting them using Java's locale support).

Yes, but you can't do that unless you know the offset to the server's 
time.  That's where the NegProt timestamp comes in.

Since the file timestamps are stored in server local time (in FAT) I
assume that they are also reported that way via SMB.  To convert those
into UTC you also need to know the difference between server time and UTC.

> >Note that calculating the time for display on the client does involve Java 
> >doing a lot of time manipulations locally.  There's lots of opportunities 
> >for subtle bugs at all levels.
> 
> Yes. But this shouldn't occur at that level. SmbFile is a filie I/O API, 
> not a user interface, and it's supposed to use UTC, not local time (at 
> least I would assume so because this is was java.io.File does).

So at which point do you apply the DST conversion in your code?
Just curious...

> >Does jCIFS return differnt values when running on, say, Linux vs. W2K and 
> >accessing the same file?
> 
> I'll try tomorrow.

Looking forward to the results.

Chris -)-----

-- 
"Implementing CIFS - the Common Internet FileSystem" ISBN: 013047116X
Samba Team -- http://www.samba.org/     -)-----   Christopher R. Hertel
jCIFS Team -- http://jcifs.samba.org/   -)-----   ubiqx development, uninq.
ubiqx Team -- http://www.ubiqx.org/     -)-----   crh at ubiqx.mn.org
OnLineBook -- http://ubiqx.org/cifs/    -)-----   crh at ubiqx.org