I recently had to add some code that sets $ENV{TZ} to the correct local time. (Date::Manip requires this, and it wasn't already in my ENV on windows.) I've noticed that since doing that, when I call one perl script from another the localtime incorrectly returns GMT in the called script.

$ENV{'TZ'} = '-0400';  # also tried 'US/Eastern' with same result.

print qq{---- $ENV{'COUNT'} ----
TZ: $ENV{'TZ'}
localtime: } . scalar(localtime) . "\n";

$ENV{'COUNT'}++;
exit if $ENV{'COUNT'} > 3;

system("C:\\perl\\bin\\perl.exe C:\\cgi\\test");
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The result is:

C:\FootPrints1\cgi>C:\perl\bin\perl.exe C:\cgi\test
----  ----
TZ: -0400
localtime: Thu Sep  6 10:46:07 2007
---- 1 ----
TZ: -0400
localtime: Thu Sep  6 14:46:07 2007
---- 2 ----
TZ: -0400
localtime: Thu Sep  6 14:46:07 2007
---- 3 ----
TZ: -0400
localtime: Thu Sep  6 14:46:07 2007
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I'm using ActiveState 5.8.8. When I try the same on Solaris with 5.8.1 it always shows the correct local time. I tried the following code after setting ENV{TZ}, but it had no effect on the result:

use POSIX();
POSIX::tzset();
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Any ideas how I can make localtime give me the local time (while still setting ENV{TZ} to keep Date::Manip happy)? What settings does localtime depend on?

Thanks, Joe