Which timezone to setup in server: Etc/UTC or Etc/Universal?

administration, linux, time, timezone

Solution

Etc/Universal is simply an older naming standard for Etc/UTC. The same goes for Etc/Zulo. It works, it is in every practical aspect the same, but if you want to be really correct; Etc/UTC is the one to pick.

From the tz database etcetera file:

# The following link uses older naming conventions,
# but it belongs here, not in the file `backward',
# as functions like gmtime load the "GMT" file to handle leap seconds properly.
# We want this to work even on installations that omit the other older names.

Link    Etc/UTC             Etc/Universal
Link    Etc/UTC             Etc/Zulu

Problem

Both timezones (Etc/UTC & Etc/Universal) available on ubuntu 10.04. Can;t figure out which one to choose for the web server. My theory that Etc/UTC points to the particular time zone rather then Etc/Universal is semantically points to the current "base" time. So Universal is the option of choice.

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