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FTP protocol file timestamps incorrect

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When accessing my server using a ftp:// protocol URL, the timestamps displayed for all files are incorrect. For instance, if a file was created at 12:01 PM EST today, verified by logging into the server directly, then Firefox will display it as 7:01 AM EST. Note that both the server and my browser are in EST.

No other FTP client displays the time this way, so I don't think it's something wrong with the server. The only thing I can think of is that the server is not supplying any timezone information, so Firefox thinks that the server is on UTC which it then converts to EST for me. However, this is an incorrect assumption.

The server is running pure-ftpd on OpenBSD, if that helps.

When accessing my server using a ftp:// protocol URL, the timestamps displayed for all files are incorrect. For instance, if a file was created at 12:01 PM EST today, verified by logging into the server directly, then Firefox will display it as 7:01 AM EST. Note that both the server and my browser are in EST. No other FTP client displays the time this way, so I don't think it's something wrong with the server. The only thing I can think of is that the server is not supplying any timezone information, so Firefox thinks that the server is on UTC which it then converts to EST for me. However, this is an incorrect assumption. The server is running pure-ftpd on OpenBSD, if that helps.
Attached screenshots

Modified by Roy Goodman

All Replies (3)

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Are you possibly using "Resist Fingerprinting" as that sets you in the UTC timezone ?

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cor-el said

Are you possibly using "Resist Fingerprinting" as that sets you in the UTC timezone ?

I am not, but thanks for the suggestion. It seems that Firefox thinks that the server, rather than the client, is in UTC, since the times on the page show in EST.

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Here is a listing of the directory on the server shown in the attached image:

  • $ date
  • Fri Feb 28 13:03:28 EST 2020
  • $ ls -la
  • total 1520
  • dr-xr-x--- 6 rlgoodman ftpgroup 512 Feb 28 12:52 .
  • drwxr-x--- 5 root ftpgroup 512 Jan 23 15:50 ..
  • dr-xr-x--- 5 rlgoodman ftpgroup 512 Jul 18 2017 ap21rm-ff
  • dr-xr-x--- 3 rlgoodman ftpgroup 512 Jul 18 2017 ax-util-keys
  • dr-xr-x--- 2 rlgoodman ftpgroup 583168 Feb 28 10:50 current
  • -rw-r--r-- 2 ops-rm ops-rm 64105 Feb 28 12:52 entitledAxiomaItems.xml
  • -rw-r--r-- 2 ops-rm ops-rm 62209 Feb 28 12:50 entitledAxiomaItemsV2.xml
  • dr-xr-x--- 3 rlgoodman ftpgroup 512 Jul 18 2017 esm-flatfile
  • -rwxr-xr-x 711 ops-rm ops-rm 15636 Feb 27 16:01 noDistributionDates.xml

As you can see in the attached image, the timestamps shown by Firefox are 5 hours off from the actual time.

Modified by Roy Goodman