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I am trying to troubleshoot a problem. Some very helpful information would lead me to a solution is:

Often does Linux check the /etc/localtime file?

Additionally if there is a configuration file to increase the frequency (for testing) that would be helpful.

Normally I would assume that it would check when a call to the ntp server has been executed, but NTP is not installed.

It couldn't possibly check every time the date function is called as this would result in many problems on busy web servers.

Server is Ubuntu 12.04, but I don't think that is relevant to the question.

DarkSheep
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1 Answers1

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Every application reads and interprets that file on its own. There is no system-wide in-memory copy of that file made available to applications. So this means that if you change that file, every new process will see the change right away. Already running applications do cache the results of reading and parsing that file on the occasion of the first date function used. So normally you should restart every long-running application after changing the time-zone settings.

Laszlo Valko
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