Currently we have just under 200 wikis using 'non standard' default time zones (set in http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/InitialiseSettings.php.txt ) where the default time zone is something other then UTC. That default time zone is used (unless it's changed in the preferences) for all interface timestamp displays (such as recent changes, user contributions or page histories). It is also used (whether you change your preferences or not) for the time stamp in an onwiki signature.
When you enable the HHVM beta feature on one of these wikis the time zone is defaulted to UTC regardless of the setting in InitialiseSettings. This then shows the UTC times in the interface displays. It does NOT appear to change the time zone used for signatures.
Duplication steps to see:
- Go to a wiki with a non standard default time zone (example: sv.wikipedia.org or http://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/InitialiseSettings.php.txt)
- Go to the beta features page (example: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures ) and make sure you do not have HHVM enabled.
- Go to you appearance preferences (example: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering ) and ensure you are on the 'use wiki default' time zone. If you are not switch to it. [you can see here that the default shows in parens the time zone used such as 'Europe/Berlin']
- Go to (or open in a new tab) a page showing interface time stamps such as contributions (example: https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jalexander-WMF ) [you can see the time stamps in the local wiki default]
- Go back to beta features page, check HHVM and save.
- Go back to (or refresh) the page showing interface time stamps. [you will see them changed, now displayed in UTC]
- You can also view the appearance preferences page again. [you will see the 'use wiki default' now shows +00:00 as the time zone]
- You can go back to the beta features page, uncheck HHVM and save. [all previous pages will revert back to the original wiki default.]
It does NOT appear that signature time stamps change (they are still in the wiki default as defined in the wiki config settings)
Version: unspecified
Severity: normal