get server time in php - timezone issues

Question

on shell, my server time is (simple date in bash): Sun Aug 29 10:37:12 EDT 2010

when I run the code php -r "echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s');" I get: 2010-08-29 10:37:10

but when I execute a php script that has echo date('Y-m-d H:i:s'); I get a different time- since php thinks the timezone is UTC (server time is EDT).

My php.ini file has no timezone set, and I wouldnt like to change anything- as I have no idea what affect it would have on other sites that run on this server.

Is there a simple way to get the server time- at the timezone that is set for the server?

Answer 1

According to the php.ini directives manual page, the timezone isn't set by default if you're using a version prior to 5.3. Then if you take a look at the page for date_default_timezone_get, it uses the following order for getting the timezone:

* Reading the timezone set using the date_default_timezone_set() function (if any)
* Reading the TZ environment variable (if non empty) (Prior to PHP 5.3.0)
* Reading the value of the date.timezone ini option (if set)
* Querying the host operating system (if supported and allowed by the OS)

UTC is the default if all of those fail, so that's probably a good starting point.