timezone issue for scheduler

sample code from apscheduler docs:

from pytz import utc
....
scheduler = BackgroundScheduler(jobstores=jobstores, executors=executors, job_defaults=job_defaults, timezone=utc)

it works for ubuntu, but after I change OS to amazonlinux, does not work error message:

ERROR:apscheduler.jobstores.default:Unable to restore job "xxxx_job" -- removing it
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/local/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/apscheduler/jobstores/sqlalchemy.py", line 141, in _get_jobs
    jobs.append(self._reconstitute_job(row.job_state))
  File "/usr/local/lib64/python2.7/site-packages/apscheduler/jobstores/sqlalchemy.py", line 125, in _reconstitute_job
    job_state = pickle.loads(job_state)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pytz/__init__.py", line 283, in _p
    return unpickler(*args)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pytz/tzinfo.py", line 539, in unpickler
    tz = pytz.timezone(zone)
  File "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/pytz/__init__.py", line 177, in timezone
    raise UnknownTimeZoneError(zone)
UnknownTimeZoneError: 'local'

then I add a file /etc/timezone with content ‘Etc/UTC’, it works

when add a scheduled job, should it use timezone I passed in code otherwise read from /etc/timezone ? looks like it always get it from system config

[qli-aa]

pass timezone=utc to BackgroundScheduler like this:

from pytz import utc
scheduler = BackgroundScheduler(jobstores=jobstores, executors=executors, job_defaults=job_defaults, timezone=utc)

1. amazonlinux should be /etc/localtime, like centos/redhat instead of /etc/timezone, but tzlocal think it was not centos-like OS (because /etc/localtime exists but not a symlink), then return local timezone

[agronholm]

As for the first observed problem, it happened while restoring an existing job. The timezone you set for the scheduler does not affect jobs added before that. So, not a bug. As for the second, report that to the tzlocal issue tracker.