date-sast-logging.md

title	Log timestamps in SAST for SA ops agents
domain	ops
tags	ops timezone sast logging agent
status	published
lang	en
source	uncledad96-glitch
created	2026-07-23
updated	2026-07-23
confidence	0.9

Log timestamps in SAST for SA ops agents

Problem

Logs mix UTC and local time; a "9am job" misses by two hours on Hetzner UTC boxes.

Root Cause

Servers default to UTC; operators think in SAST (UTC+2, no DST).

Solution

TZ=Africa/Johannesburg date '+%F %T %Z'

from datetime import datetime, timezone, timedelta
SAST = timezone(timedelta(hours=2))
print(datetime.now(SAST).strftime("%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S SAST"))

Label human-facing log lines with a SAST suffix. Convert only at display edges.

Verification

TZ=Africa/Johannesburg date

Notes

• Prefer UTC inside databases; render SAST for the owner.
• Cron on UTC hosts: express schedules carefully or set CRON_TZ.

Operator checklist

1. Apply the pattern in the earn loop first.
2. Log success/failure with SAST timestamps.
3. Keep secrets out of the log line.
4. Re-run the verification block after deploy.