date() function and DST

[seanlim]

Hi guys

Need help with the daylight saving time (DST). Have been tearing my hair out over this for the past hour.

I need PHP to follow the UK timezone, and have therefore added the following line at the start:
[code]putenv("TZ=Europe/London");[/code]

For those who don't already know, the official timezone for London is GMT. As DST is observed in london now, time should be 1 hour forward from GMT i.e. GMT +01:00

PHP's date function can "detect" the DST correctly; date('I') returns 1.

[code]<?
putenv("TZ=Europe/London");
echo "London<br>";
echo "Timestamp: ".time()."<br>";
echo "DST: ".date('I')."<br>";
echo "Time: ".date('H:i O')."<br>";
echo "<br>";
echo "GMT<br>";
echo "Timestamp: ".gmmktime(date('G'), date('i'), date('s'), date('n'), date('t'), date('Y'))."<br>";
echo "DST: ".gmdate('I')."<br>";
echo "Time: ".gmdate('H:i O')."<br>";
?>[/code]

output:
[code]London
Timestamp: 1150213911
DST: 1
Time: 15:51 +0100

GMT
Timestamp: 1151686311
DST: 0
Time: 15:51 +0000[/code]

I am totally confused by the output. I would think that London's time would output 16:51 instead.

Does PHP support fully support DST? Or do I not understand DST enough?

Thanks..

[cat_killer15]

Running the code you have above I got this output:
[code] London
Timestamp: 1150236686
DST: 1
Time: 23:11 +0100

GMT
Timestamp: 1151709086
DST: 0
Time: 22:11 +0000[/code]
Is this not what you want it to show?

[seanlim]

Yes. That's what I want it to show. Problem is, my server is in Singapore where there isn't DST.

maybe putenv is not the best method..

any help here?