Timezone issue, ensure consistency?

1

I ran into an issue yesterday where time based rules fired at incorrect times. It took a while to track down the problem (system TZ = openhab TZ <> Java TZ). This seems to be a fairly common mishap over the last 10 years or so. This despite having a helper openhabian-config for setting system time, and access to the openhab time zone setting via the WebUI.

My question is whether more can be done to ensure consistency between the various systems comprising an openhab instance? As a minimum I would think that at least Java, the OS, and openHAB should by default use the same timezone information. User facing tools should at least inform a user if any of these settings start to diverge.

I know this is a complex issue, since add-ons like persistence databases could also use separate timezone settings. However, because it is complex it also means that a casual user (like me) needs all possible help to not mix up timezone settings.

Has an issue been created for this, and if not, is it worth my effort to create an issue (and then, where)?

2
3

This perfectly illustrates why a user needs assistance from the provided tools to keep TZ info in sync.

4

or why every new user should read the docs first:

NOTE: You should have been configuring timezone and locale at installation time via openhabian.conf settings.

5

From the same help documentation:

Timezone: Your timezone is typically set by your network, but if it appears to be the wrong time you can use menu option 33 to set it manually.

Despite following this documented step it did not resolve my Java timezone issue. I had to manually edit EXTRA_JAVA_OPTS in /etc/default/openhab to specify the correct timezone.

6

And you followed the docs at

?
where it says:

Most notably you should be setting the timezone and locale this way if yours differ from the defaults