datetotime() function usage

Steps on recreating the symptoms:

-edit probe rule file with the following lines:
$tmp_time = "Tue DEC 19 18:33:11 JST 2010"
$date= datetotime ($tmp_time,"%a %b %e %T %Y")
log(debug,"string  " + $tmp_time + "  to  " + $date)
- set locale to ja_JP on probe host,
- start the ObjectServer,
- start the probe.

The following message is written to the probe debug log file, and the string is not converted correctly:

2011-03-24T11:08:49: Error: E-ETC-102-036: Fail to parse date string: Tue DEC 19 18:33:11 JST 2010 using format: %a %b %e %T %Y. Error code: U_PARSE_ERROR
2011-03-24T11:08:49: Warning: W-UNK-000-000: Failed to convert "Tue DEC 19 18:33:11 JST 2010" to DATETIME using format "%a %b %e %T %Y" - using current time
2011-03-24T11:08:49: Debug: D-UNK-000-000: string  Tue DEC 19 18:33:11 JST 2010  to  1300936129

From 7.3.0, the old POSIX style date/time formats ( $tmp_time,"%a %b %e %T %Y") have been deprecated.

When using datetotime function in a probe rules file for OMNIbus 7.3.0 or later, then you need use the ICU formats that support all locales.

More details can be found in the OMNIbus 7.3.1 Release notes here:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/tivihelp/v8r1/topic/com.ibm.netcool_OMNIbus.doc_7.3.1/omnibus/wip/relnotes/omn_relnotes731.html#relnotes__backward

Search for:
"Date and time formatting and parsing"

ICU formats as described here:
http://userguide.icu-project.org/formatparse/datetime

Using the above example, you should change the call for datetotime to resemble the following:

$tmp_time = "Tue DEC 19 18:33:11 JST 2010"
$date= datetotime ($tmp_time,"E MMM dd HH:mm:ss V yyyy")
log(debug,"string  " + $tmp_time + "  to  " + $date)

That is because the formats mean the following:
E - locale specific abbreviation for the day of the week.
MMM - locale specific abbreviation for the name of the month

Note : "Tues" and "DEC" should be replaced by their Japanese equivalents.