MySQL Bugs: #67648: Incomplete definition of SET time

Bug #67648	Incomplete definition of SET time_zone value
Submitted:	20 Nov 2012 10:58	Modified:	28 Nov 2012 15:59
Reporter:	Dick Middleton	Email Updates:
Status:	Not a Bug	Impact on me:	None
Category:	MySQL Server: Documentation	Severity:	S3 (Non-critical)
Version:	5.5	OS:	Linux (GNU/Debian)
Assigned to:		CPU Architecture:	Any
Tags:	documentation, format, specification, value

Description:
There is no definition of time_zone numeric value under the SET command.  The definition is described as 'unix epoch value'. Unix epoch value is normally unsigned hrs:mins:seconds or seconds. These formats are not accepted with SET time_zone.

SET time_zone seems to accept numeric values of the form +|- [h]h:[m]m only.  The sign is mandatory, hours and minutes, one or two digits each, are mandatory  but seconds are not permitted.

How to repeat:
Only affects documentation.

Suggested fix:
Specify in documentation.

Thank you for the report.

We have following text at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.5/en/time-zone-support.html:

----<q>----
 The current time zone setting does not affect values displayed by functions such as UTC_TIMESTAMP() or values in DATE, TIME, or DATETIME columns. Nor are values in those data types stored in UTC; the time zone applies for them only when converting from TIMESTAMP values. If you want locale-specific arithmetic for DATE, TIME, or DATETIME values, convert them to UTC, perform the arithmetic, and then convert back.

The current values of the global and client-specific time zones can be retrieved like this:

mysql> SELECT @@global.time_zone, @@session.time_zone;

timezone values can be given in several formats, none of which are case sensitive:

    The value 'SYSTEM' indicates that the time zone should be the same as the system time zone.

    The value can be given as a string indicating an offset from UTC, such as '+10:00' or '-6:00'.

    The value can be given as a named time zone, such as 'Europe/Helsinki', 'US/Eastern', or 'MET'. Named time zones can be used only if the time zone information tables in the mysql database have been created and populated. 

----</q>----

"    The value can be given as a string indicating an offset from UTC, such as '+10:00' or '-6:00'." looks like exactly what you are asking for. Why this text doesn't work for you?

Thank you for taking the time to write to us, but this is not a bug. Please double-check the documentation available at http://dev.mysql.com/doc/ and the instructions on
how to report a bug at http://bugs.mysql.com/how-to-report.php