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timezone(3)
NAME
daylight, timezone, tzname, tzset - Sets and accesses timezone conversion
information
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc.so, libc.a)
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
void tzset(void):
extern int daylight;
extern long timezone;
extern char *tzname[];
STANDARDS
Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards
as follows:
tzset(): POSIX.1, XSH4.2
Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about
industry standards and associated tags.
DESCRIPTION
The tzset() function uses the value of the environment variable TZ to set
time conversion information used by several other functions, including
ctime(), ctime_r(), getdate(), getdate_r(), localtime(), localtime_r(),
mktime(), strftime(), and strptime().
If the TZ variable is not set, tzset uses implementation-dependent default
timezone information. On Tru64 UNIX systems, this information is located
in the /etc/zoneinfo/localtime file. See the section, Tru64 UNIX Timezone
Handling, for details.
The tzset() function sets the external variable tzname as follows:
tzname[0] = "std";
tzname[1] = "dst";
where std indicates the standard timezone and dst designates the
alternative timezone (such as Daylight Savings Time). (These variables are
described below in the section, The TZ Environment Variable.)
The tzset() function also sets the external variable daylight to 0 if
Daylight Savings Time conversions should never be applied for the time zone
in use. Otherwise, daylight is set to a nonzero value.
The external variable timezone is set to the difference, in seconds,
between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and local standard time. For
example:
TZ timezone
EST 5*60*60
GMT 0*60*60
JST -9*60*60
MET -1*60*60
MST 7*60*60
PST 8*60*60
Tru64 UNIX Timezone Handling
Tru64 UNIX uses a public-domain timezone-handling package that puts
timezone conversion rules in easily accessible and modifiable files. These
files are in the directory /etc/zoneinfo/sources. The timezone compiler
zic(8) converts these files to a special format described in tzfile(4) and
places them in the /etc/zoneinfo directory. This format is readable by the
C library functions that handle timezone information.
The tzset() function uses the tzfile-formatted file linked by
/etc/zoneinfo/localtime to set the timezone conversion information. The
/etc/zoneinfo/localtime link is set during installation to a file in the
/etc/zoneinfo directory. For example, in the eastern United States,
/etc/zoneinfo/localtime is linked to /etc/zoneinfo/US/Eastern.
If the TZ environment variable is defined, the defined value overrides the
timezone information in /etc/zoneinfo/localtime. TZ can be set by a user
as a regular environment variable for converting to alternate time zones.
See the section, The TZ Environment Variable, for details.
Getting Timezone Information
The libc ctime() and localtime() routines return the local time and
timezone information. The ctime() routine returns a string that
corresponds to the local time; for example, Tue Oct 27 13:35:29 1992.
The localtime() routine returns a pointer to a tm structure (defined in
<sys/time.h>) that contains the local time expressed in fields of the tm
structure. For timezone information, there are three relevant fields:
tm_isdst
A flag that is set to 1 if daylight savings time is currently in
effect. Otherwise, the flag is set to 0.
tm_gmtoff
Seconds east of Greenwich. For example, -18000 means 5 hours west of
Greenwich.
tm_tzone
Abbreviation for the current time zone (for example, EST, PDT, GMT).
Setting Timezone Information
The /etc/zoneinfo/localtime link can be changed by the system administrator
to any file in the /etc/zoneinfo directory.
For example, to change the default system timezone to Canada's Atlantic
time zone, enter the following as superuser:
# ln -s /etc/zoneinfo/Canada/Atlantic /etc/zoneinfo/localtime
Subsequent calls to the timezone-related functions in libc (ctime() and
localtime()) use this link for the default timezone information.
If the timezone and daylight savings time information in the
/etc/zoneinfo/sources directory is incorrect for your time zone, you can
change the information in the source files and then use the zic command to
generate a corresponding /etc/zoneinfo file.
A user can override the default timezone information by setting the TZ
environment variable as described in the section, The TZ Environment
Variable.
The TZ Environment Variable
When TZ appears in the environment and its value is not a null string, the
value has one of three formats:
:
:pathname
stdoffset[dst[offset] [,start[/time],end[/time]]]
[Tru64 UNIX] If TZ has the single colon format (:), Coordinated Universal
Time (UTC) is used.
[Tru64 UNIX] If TZ has the colon-pathname format (:pathname), the
characters following the colon specify the pathname of a tzfile(4) format
file from which to read the time conversion information. A pathname
beginning with a slash (/) represents an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
pathname is relative to the system time conversion information directory
/etc/zoneinfo.
If TZ does not begin with a colon (:), the components of the string are as
follows:
std and dst
Three or more characters that are the designation for the standard
(std) or alternative (dst) time zone (such as Daylight Savings Time).
Only std is required. If dst is not supplied, the alternative time
does not apply to the locale. Upper- and lower-case letters are
explicitly allowed. Any characters, except digits, a leading colon
(:), comma (,), minus (-), plus (+), and ASCII NUL, are allowed.
offset
Indicates the value to be added to the local time to arrive at GMT.
The offset has the form:
hh[:mm[:ss]]
The minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) are optional. The hour (hh) is
required and can be either one or two digits. The offset following std
is required. If no offset follows dst, the alternative time is assumed
to be one hour ahead of standard time. One or more digits can be used;
the value is always interpreted as a decimal number. The hour value
must be between zero and 24. The value for the minutes and seconds, if
present, must be between zero and 59. If preceded by a minus sign (-),
the time zone is east of the Prime Meridian; otherwise it is west,
which can be indicated by a preceding plus sign (+).
start and end
Indicates when to change to and return from alternative time. The
start argument is the date when the change from standard to alternative
time occurs; end is the date for changing back. If start and end are
not specified, the default is the US Daylight Saving Time start and end
dates. The format for start and end must be one of the following:
Jn The Julian day n (1 <_ n <_ 365). Leap days are not counted. That
is, in all years, including leap years, February 28 is day 59 and
March 1 is day 60. It is impossible to explicitly refer to
February 29.
n The zero-based Julian day (0 <_ n <_ 365). Leap days are counted
making it possible to refer to February 29.
Mm.n.d
The dth day (0 <_ d <_ 6) of week n of month m of the year (1 <_ n <_
5, 1 <_ m <_ 12). When n is 5, it refers to the last d day of month
m which may occur in either the fourth or fifth week. Week 1 is
the first week in which the dth day occurs. Day zero is Sunday.
time
Describes the time when, in current time, the change to or return from
alternative time occurs. The time parameter has the same format as
offset, except that there can be no leading minus (-) or plus (+) sign.
If time is not specified, the default is 02:00:00.
As an example, the TZ variable value EST5EDT4,M4.1.0,M10.5.0 describes the
rule defined in 1987 for the Eastern time zone in the US. EST (Eastern
Standard Time) is the designation for standard time, which is 5 hours
behind GMT. EDT (Eastern Daylight Time) is the designation for alternative
time, which is 4 hours behind GMT. EDT starts on the first Sunday in April
and ends on the last Sunday in October. In both cases, since time was not
specified, the changes occur at the default time, which is 2:00 A.M. Note
that the start and end dates did not need to be specified since they are
the defaults.
NOTES
[Tru64 UNIX] For users of the SVID2 habitat, TZ is defined by default in
the following format:
std offset [dst[offset] ]
[Tru64 UNIX] For users of the SVID3 habitat, TZ is defined by default in
the following format:
:pathname
See the section, The TZ Environment Variable, for definitions of the
parameters used in these formats.
RELATED INFORMATION
Functions: ctime(3), ctime_r(3), difftime(3), getdate(3), getdate_r(3),
getenv(3), localtime(3), localtime_r(3), mktime(3), strftime(3),
strptime(3), time(3)
Commands: date(1), zdump(8), zic(8)
Files: tzfile(4)
Standards: standards(5)
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