[comp.databases] INGRES date/time function bug

shah@lznv.UUCP (11/14/87)

It seems that INGRES (Release 5.0)  has  a  bug  in  the  library
routines   provided   to handle date and time.  The date and time
routines    are    not    handling     localtime       correctly.
Specifically,  the  routines  are  off  by an hour.  RTI has been
informed and has promised to fix the bug (did'nt say when).

In the meantime, avoid using the time/date functions  in  EQUEL/C
or  SQL/C  programs.   Use UNIX ctime(3) instead.  In REPORT, the
only way to fix this, as I see it,  is  to  set  the  environment
variable  TZ  off by an hour to nullify the 'off-by-an-hour' bug.
e.g. if you are in the eastern time zone, set  TZ=EST6EDT  before
running   report.   Set  it back to EST5EDT after that (or better
yet run the report in a subshell with TZ=EST6EDT).

Surprisingly, II_TIMEZONE seems to have no effect  on  all  this.
Also, it would seem logical if the bug existed when Daylight time
was being observed and NOT when following the Standard time.

Any pointers to alternate solutions welcome.

-- 
Sanjeev Shah
AT&T-IS Lincroft NJ USA
uucp:  {attmail, bellcore, ihnp4, rutgers, ulysses}!lzmi!shah
voice: +1 201 576 2721