This should be a FAQ.

Stefano Gobbo writes:
> 2  Timezone setting. I just rebuild my kernel and I wanted to
>    adjust timezone to MET (since now, it is set to the some US TZ).
>    Which values must I give to the TIMEZONE and DST entry in the config
>    file? I've read somwhere thah it needs the time shift expressed in 
>    minutes. Is it true? Since MET is +1 hour to GMT but seems to me that
>    TZ=0 is set up to an US TZ, how must I behave?

The kernel setting isn't what you use -- thats an ancient bit of
residue -- don't touch it. Timezone isn't in the kernel any more.

You simply link /etc/localtime to the appropriate file in
/usr/share/zoneinfo. The only stuff that cares are userland programs
and their localtime() calls check that ZIC file to figure out what to
do.

Perry