SETCLOCK

If the change in time zone is to a later time (a c hange to Daylight Savings Time or an \Eastern" geographic mo vement), both local time and the time zone o￿set are changed immediately.

The e￿ect is that users of local system time will see an immediate jump forward to the new time zone, while users of Univ ersal Time will see no change.

If the change in time zone is to an earlier time (a c hange from Daylight Savings to Standard Time or a \W estern" geographic mo vement), the time zone o￿set is changed immediately. Then the local time slo ws down until the system time corresponds to the time in the new time zone.

The e￿ect is that users of local system time will see a gradual slo wdown to match the new time zone, while users of Univ ersal Time will see an immediate forward jump, then a slo wdown until the system time again matches \real" Univ ersal Time.

This method of c hanging time zones ensures that no out-of-sequence time stamps will occur either in local time or in Univ ersal Time.

How a Gradual Time Change Works

Whether the Date-Time or a Correction form is used, the default method of changing the time is to gradually speed up or slo w down the system clock until the change is achieved. Thus, even when a previous time is requested, the system clock will still mo ve forward, although at a slo wer pace than real time. This slower pace will con tinue until the desired time \catc hes up" with the system clock. Because of the system cloc k's forward motion, there will nev er be a case where two consecutive timestamps appear to be out of sequence and where system time appears to run bac kwards.

This change in clock speed is accomplished b y establishing a system time correction whic h is gradually consumed. During this time the system cloc k speeds up or slo ws down as necessary. When the correction reac hes zero, the system clock resumes its normal pace. The time it tak es to to consume the correction will be m uch longer than the correction itself. Th us, a correction of a negative one hour (-3600 seconds) ma y take several hours of w all time to complete. In general the rate of the correction depends on the load on the system. The correction rate will be slo wed down by frequent timestamp

MPE/iX Commands 2-241