Another test that we ran locally;

# cat test.java
class test {
  /** Print a hello message */
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    System.out.println(java.util.TimeZone.getDefault());
  }
}

# javac test.java

# export TZ="/usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York"

# java test
sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="GMT-05:00",offset=-18000000,dstSavings=0,useDaylight=false,transitions=0,lastRule=null] <<<<<<<<<---timezone id is set to GMT -05, it should be America/New_York.

# unset TZ

# java test
sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="America/New_York",offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,transitions=235,lastRule=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=America/New_York,offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,startYear=0,startMode=3,startMonth=2,startDay=8,startDayOfWeek=1,startTime=7200000,startTimeMode=0,endMode=3,endMonth=10,endDay=1,endDayOfWeek=1,endTime=7200000,endTimeMode=0]]

If we export TZ to just the timezone as below, it works.
# export TZ=":America/New_York"

# java test
sun.util.calendar.ZoneInfo[id="America/New_York",offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,transitions=235,lastRule=java.util.SimpleTimeZone[id=America/New_York,offset=-18000000,dstSavings=3600000,useDaylight=true,startYear=0,startMode=3,startMonth=2,startDay=8,startDayOfWeek=1,startTime=7200000,startTimeMode=0,endMode=3,endMonth=10,endDay=1,endDayOfWeek=1,endTime=7200000,endTimeMode=0]]

The issue is seen when we export TZ to the absolute filepath or /etc/localtime.

Below is the Bug that was opened Oracle Java BugZilla.
https://bugs.java.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=JDK-8200722

Andrew, can you please provide a status update?

Sorry, I mixed this up with a similar bug (bug 1536048) and thought I'd answered it.

Looking over the code, I see the issue is that any value of TZ is assumed to be a zonename. So, America/New_York works, but if it's a file path, the path is sent back to the calling Java code unaltered, which can't match it to a zone and instead falls back to GMT.

I believe different behaviour should be used if the TZ value starts with a '/' (or ':/', but it already just drops the ':')

1. If the path is /etc/localtime, use the existing logic to find out which zone that points to.
2. If it's a timezone path, use getZoneName to strip the beginning and return the zone name

The logic for both these options is already there for the case where TZ is unset. It's just ignored where TZ is set, preferring to just use that value as is. A patch for this should be fairly trivial.

Moving to RHEL 7.8.

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