LinuxQuestions.org - Samba time-stamps files incorectly

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Samba time-stamps files incorectly

I am running a Fedora Core IV server, fully updated, in my home for file backup.
I am using the program SyncBack 3.2.8.400 (free version) to backup the files from my Windows XP home laptop to my home directory on my server.
I have samba running fine on the FC box. On my XP box I have a network drive mapped to my share on the samba server.
I am synchronizing the files from my XP "MyDocuments" folder to the FC "Home" directory. When Running SyncBack, it looks at the time stamp on the files to determine which is newer, and keeps the newest ones. However, the problem is, when it looks at the files on my Samba share, it appears as if each file is 5 hours younger than the one on my Xp box. That is, if the file was made at 9:15:48 pm on my Xp box, then on the samba share is appears as 4:15:50pm on the FC box.
Any idea why this time descrepency? The result is that each time I run the "synch" it the SyncBack program wants to copy ALL the files again. THis is a waste of time.
Any ideas or troubleshooting tests I can try? Thanks.

5 hour difference & you live in Iowa, Central Time, UTC -0500.

Sounds to me like you're getting hit by the fact that M$ defaults to setting hardware clocks to local time, while *nix systems normally use UTC & then adjust to local, including daylight time. Is your FC4 server set to use UTC on the hardware (BIOS) clock?

Code:

date ; date -u

might be helpful in determining this. Otherwise, you will have to reboot & run the BIOS Setup routine to see what is actually happening.

There is always a chance that SyncBack is at fault, either a bug, or more likely it is not configured for Linux & its UTC clock. Please double check their docs to see if that is the problem.

Finally, according to my printed copy of The Official SAMBA-3 HOWTO and Reference Guide, adding something like "time offset = 300" to your smb.conf may help.

Reacp[list=1][*]What time zones are you PC's BIOS clocks set for?[*]Which of the time stamps is correct -- MS or Linux?[*]What do the SyncBack docs say about Samba & Linux?[/list=1]