get server time in php - timezone issues

196

on shell, my server time is (simpledate in bash): Sun Aug 29 10:37:12 EDT 2010

when I run the codephp -r "echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s');" I get: 2010-08-29 10:37:10

but when I execute a php script that hasecho date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); I get a different time- since php thinks the timezone is UTC (server time is EDT).

My php.ini file has no timezone set, and I wouldnt like to change anything- as I have no idea what affect it would have on other sites that run on this server.

Is there a simple way to get the server time- at the timezone that is set for the server?

791

Answer

Solution:

According to the php.ini directives manual page, the timezone isn't set by default if you're using a version prior to 5.3. Then if you take a look at the page for , it uses the following order for getting the timezone:

* Reading the timezone set using the date_default_timezone_set() function (if any)
* Reading the TZ environment variable (if non empty) (Prior to PHP 5.3.0)
* Reading the value of the date.timezone ini option (if set)
* Querying the host operating system (if supported and allowed by the OS)

UTC is the default if all of those fail, so that's probably a good starting point.

787

Answer

Solution:

The server should always have a timezone specified in thephp.ini file. PHP 5.3 even raises notices if that's not the case and theDateTime extension will throw exceptions if you attempt to build objects without explicitly specifying a timezone (with aDateTimezone object) or having a default one (either throughdate.timezone ordate_default_timezone_set).

By what you're describing, the most likely scenarios are:

Different php.ini files are being used in the two scenarios. In the first case, no default timezone is specified, so PHP attempts to infer one from the system-wide timezone of the machine.
The (second) script callsdate_default_timezone_set('UTC') or equivalent.

492

Answer

Solution:

Late for the party, but if you want to set the timezone without edit php.ini, you can put in the php code one of these strings:

date_default_timezone_set('GMT');
date_default_timezone_set('Europe/Zurich');
date_default_timezone_set('America/New_York');

948

Answer

Solution:

Have you tried using date_default_timezone_set() American timezones can be found here http://www.php.net/manual/en/timezones.america.php

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