php - How can I get the local server's time zone?

Question

How can I get the local server's timezone without relying on php.ini or other configuration files?

I am looking for an output similar to the output of date('e'). eg. "UTC", "GMT", or "Atlantic/Azores".

I need to know this so that I may know the MySQL timezone.

Answer 1

If you're using a Linux/Unix based hosting platform, you could use the output of the date command with the "alphabetic time zone abbreviation" formatter as such:

$systemTimeZone = system('date +%Z');

However, it should be noted that you shouldn't necessarily rely on the system's timezone and that you should instead use date_default_timezone_set (or the date.timezone php.ini setting) to set the required timezone.