title: Where do phpinfo date settings come from?
body: <p>When I do type <code>php -i</code> I get the following:</p>
  
  <pre><code>date
  
  date/time support =&gt; enabled
  "Olson" Timezone Database Version =&gt; 0.system
  Timezone Database =&gt; internal
  Default timezone =&gt; America/New_York
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Where do these settings come from and do they impact behavior of datetime functions?</p>
  
  <p>For instance, despite what is said in <a href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-get.php" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the docs</a> <code>date_default_timezone_get</code> returns to me <code>America/New_York</code> without any warnings and ignoring the fact that my <code>date.timezone =&gt; no value</code> and <code>date_default_timezone_set</code> doesn't apply. Is it affected by <code>Default timezone =&gt; America/New_York</code>?</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://php.net/manual/en/function.date-default-timezone-get.php#113202" rel="nofollow noreferrer">The comment</a> implies it is Ubuntu-specific behavior. Is it?</p>
  
  <p><strong>NB.</strong>
  I observed the behavior on 2 configurations: <code>Ubuntu 16.04 + php 7.2.7</code> and <code>Debian 8.7 + php 5.6.30</code></p>