285590 - Wrong mail time displayed if environment variable TZ is set

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Stefano Bertini]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it-IT; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; it-IT; rv:1.7.6) Gecko/20050226 Firefox/1.0.1

I live in a GMT+1 country.
I had the environment variable TZ set from the control panel to GMT+1

Thunderbird displayed mail dates shifted back by two hours: if the mail has the
header
Date: Thu, 10 Mar 2005 09:49:04 +0100
the displayed time would be 7:49

By removing the TZ variable, everything worked correctly again.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Set the TZ variable to the same value as your actual Timezone

Actual Results:  
The times where shifted back by two hours

Expected Results:  
Should have displayed the correct time 

Nothing important...
Just a thanks for your work !

Comment 1

[Mike Cowperthwaite]

See bug 173242 comment 2 -- I guess this is a problem only with + timezones, 
because I've never had a problem living in GMT-0600.

Comment 2

[dave]

(In reply to comment #1)
> See bug 173242 comment 2 -- I guess this is a problem only with + timezones, 
> because I've never had a problem living in GMT-0600.

The bug does not appear dependent upon one's time zone.  The origin of the
problem may actually be in MSVC runtime libraries.  I don't know whether it
exists in the newer VC libraries or not.  Too bad I had never tried setting the
TZ environment variable when using builds that I had compiled from (and linked
against) VC 2003.

See: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=173431#c11

Comment 3

[Adam Guthrie]

*** Bug 305362 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Comment 4

[Tullio Carretta]

(In reply to comment #2)
> (In reply to comment #1)
> > See bug 173242 comment 2 -- I guess this is a problem only with + timezones, 
> > because I've never had a problem living in GMT-0600.
> 
> The bug does not appear dependent upon one's time zone.  The origin of the
> problem may actually be in MSVC runtime libraries.  I don't know whether it
> exists in the newer VC libraries or not.  Too bad I had never tried setting the
> TZ environment variable when using builds that I had compiled from (and linked
> against) VC 2003.
> 
> See: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=173431#c11


DAVE,
I don't believe this could be the cause because if you issue the command 
Date()
from the Java script Console under Thunderbird Tools Menu you will get different result from what you get on the same in Firefox running on the same machine.
See also complete discussion on:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1877873#1877873
I found this problem present on version 1.07 and 1.5

Regards 

Tullio Carretta

Comment 5

[Gary Kwong [:gkw] [:nth10sd] (NOT official MoCo now)]

Reporter, does the issue still occur with the latest supported 2.0.0.x / Shredder trunk nightlies?

(1.5.0.x is now end-of-life and the latest supported Thunderbird version 2 is 2.0.0.16)

Comment 6

[Stefano Bertini]

Using version 2.0.0.16 (20080708) the problem is still present.

Comment 7

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100317 Thunderbird/3.0.4

I see this.  

My Windows XP environment TZ variable is set to PST8PDT for the Pacific Time Zone with daylight savings time.  Currently, we have daylight savings time.  Windows XP handles this correctly.  Thunderbird 3.0.4 does not.  

I submitted a message to the mozilla.test newsgroup at 7:58pm PDT; the content indicates one minute earlier because the minute changed as I sent it.  The header pane for that newsgroup shows 6:58pm.  The Date header field is:
   Date: Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:58:05 -0800
which would be correct if we were not in daylight savings time and is nevertheless correct relative to UTC.  If I reply to the message, the line just before quoting the original message shows: 
   On 3/31/10 6:58 PM, David E. Ross wrote:
which is incorrect.

Comment 8

[David E. Ross]

By the way, the time-stamp on my comment #7 is correct.  Since I'm in the same time zone as the Mozilla servers, it doesn't make any difference whether the time-stamp represents my local time or the server's time; they are both the same for me.

Comment 10

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

David, you still see this in recent builds?

Comment 11

[David E. Ross]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 5.1; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120428 Thunderbird/12.0.1

No.  This seems to have been fixed.  Since I am not the originator of this bug report, I'll leave it to someone else to mark it Resolved/WorksForMe.

Comment 12

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

Worksforme
- per comment 11
- tested per comment 4: javascript date() returns the same for TB and FF
- TB seems to use my Windows timezone correctly in drafts:
  Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 13:12:48 +0200
  (which is +1 for Germany and another +1 for summer time)
- Not sure if there is anything else which needs to be checked? (STR are not very clear), but this seems to work if you set your timezone correctly from windows control panel, e.g. GMT+1 and "Switch summer/winter time automatically" (so in summer you'll still be in GMT+1 timezone, but your system clock will show GMT+2).

Comment 13

[Thomas D. (:thomas8)]

(In reply to Thomas D. from comment #12)
> Worksforme
> - per comment 11
> - tested per comment 4: javascript date() returns the same for TB and FF
> - TB seems to use my Windows timezone correctly in drafts:
>   Date: Tue, 01 May 2012 13:12:48 +0200
>   (which is +1 for Germany and another +1 for summer time)

Also, mail received from another timezone shows correctly:
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2012 18:01:14 +0530 (sent from India)
-> GMT is 12:31, and wintertime in German timezone is GMT+1, so that's 13:31
-> TB correctly shows 13:31 in message header pane