Description of problem:
If the TZ environment variable is set to the absolute filepath of the TimeZone, java fall back to setting the timezone in GMT time.
This caused incorrect times to be reported in a java/tomcat application. Every time when daylight savings time is active, between March and November in the US.

Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.4
java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.161-0.b14.el7_4.x86_64
tzdata-java-2018d-1.el7.noarch
tzdata-2018d-1.el7.noarch

Also reproduced on java-1.7.0-openjdk and java-1.6.0-openjdk .

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. # cat GetDate.java:
import java.util.Date;

class GetDate {
/** Print a hello message */
public static void main(String[] args)

}

1. javac GetDate.java

2.

1. java GetDate
   Wed Mar 21 14:48:35 CDT 2018

3.

1. export TZ=:/etc/localtime
2. java GetDate
   Wed Mar 21 13:50:04 GMT-06:00 2018

With date command, I get the correct time, even with the environment variable

1. date
   Wed Mar 21 14:50:06 CDT 2018

1. ls -hla /etc/localtime
   lrwxrwxrwx. 1 root root 37 Mar 21 13:28 /etc/localtime -> ../usr/share/zoneinfo/America/Chicago

4.
If the TZ environment variable is unset, it provides the correct output.
$ unset TZ
$ java GetDate
Wed Mar 21 14:52:38 CDT 2018

Actual results:
When TZ is set to absolute path of the TimeZone file, it fails to output the TimeZone but prints the GMT time.

Expected results:
Expected to return the TimeZone correctly even when TZ environment variable is set.

Additional info: