7.12. Creating the setclock script

The following script is only for real use when your hardware clock (also known as BIOS or CMOS clock) isn't set to GMT time. The recommended setup is setting your hardware clock to GMT and have the time converted to localtime using the /etc/localtime symbolic link. But if you run an OS that doesn't understand a clock set to GMT (most notable are Microsoft OS'es) you might want to set your clock to localtime so that the time is properly displayed on those OS'es. This script will reset the kernel time to the hardware clock without converting the time using the /etc/localtime symlink.

If you want to use this script on your system even if you have your hardware clock set to GMT, then change the UTC variable below to the value of 1.

cat > setclock << "EOF"
#!/bin/sh
# Begin /etc/init.d/setclock

#
# Include the functions declared in the /etc/init.d/functions file
# and include the variables from the /etc/sysconfig/clock file
#

source /etc/init.d/functions
source /etc/sysconfig/clock

#
# Right now we want to set the kernel clock according to the hardware
# clock, so we use the -hctosys parameter.
#

CLOCKPARAMS="--hctosys"

#
# If the UTC variable is set in the /etc/sysconfig/clock file, add the
# -u parameter as well which tells hwclock that the hardware clock is
# set to UTC time instead of local time.
#

case "$UTC" in
        yes|true|1)
                CLOCKPARAMS="$CLOCKPARAMS -u"
                ;;
esac

echo -n "Setting clock..."
/sbin/hwclock $CLOCKPARAMS
evaluate_retval

# End /etc/init.d/setclock
EOF