daylight, timezone, tzname, tzset - sets and accesses time
zone conversion information
#include <time.h>
void tzset(void);
extern int daylight; extern long timezone; extern char
*tzname[];
Standard C Library (libc.so, libc.a)
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.
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 time zone information. This information
is located in the /etc/zoneinfo/localtime file. See
the section Time Zone Handling for details.
The tzset() function sets the external variable tzname as
follows:
tzname0 = "std"; tzname1 = "dst";
where std indicates the standard time zone and dst designates
the alternative time zone (such as Daylight Savings
Time). (These variables are described below in the section
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
---------------
Time Zone Handling [Toc] [Back]
The operating system uses a public-domain time zone handling
package that puts time zone conversion rules in easily
accessible and modifiable files. These files are in
the directory /etc/zoneinfo/sources. The time zone 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 time zone information.
The tzset() function uses the tzfile-formatted file linked
by /etc/zoneinfo/localtime to set the time zone conversion
information. The /etc/zoneinfo/localtime link is set during
installation to a file in the /etc/zoneinfo directory.
For example, for time zone information consistent with the
city of New York on the American continent, /etc/zoneinfo/localtime
is linked to /etc/zoneinfo/America/New_York.
If the TZ environment variable is defined, the defined
value overrides the time zone 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 TZ Environment Variable for
details.
Getting Time Zone Information [Toc] [Back]
The libc routines ctime() and localtime() return the local
time and time zone 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 time
zone information, there are three relevant fields: A
option that is set to 1 if daylight savings time is currently
in effect. Otherwise, the option is set to 0. Seconds
east of Greenwich. For example, -18000 means 5 hours
west of Greenwich. Abbreviation for the current time zone
(for example, EST, PDT, GMT).
Setting Time Zone Information [Toc] [Back]
The /etc/zoneinfo/localtime link can be changed by the
system administrator to any file in the /etc/zoneinfo
directory.
For example, the following command changes the local time
zone to be consistent with the city of New York on the
American continent:
# ln -sf /etc/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/zoneinfo/localtime
Subsequent calls to the time zone related functions in
libc (ctime() and localtime()) use this link for the
default time zone information.
If the time zone 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 time zone information by
setting the TZ environment variable as described in the
section TZ Environment Variable.
TZ Environment Variable [Toc] [Back]
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: 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 lowercase letters
are explicitly allowed. Any characters, except digits, a
leading colon (:), comma (,), minus (-), plus (+), and
ASCII NUL, are allowed. 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
(+). 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:
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. The zero-based Julian day (0 <=n <= 365). Leap
days are counted making it possible to refer to
February 29. 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. 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.
[Tru64 UNIX] For users of the SVID2 habitat, TZ is
defined by default in the following format:
stdoffset[dst[offset]]
[Tru64 UNIX] For users of the SVID3 habitat, TZ is
defined by default in the following format:
:pathname
See the section TZ Environment Variable for definitions of
the parameters used in these formats.
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)
timezone(3)
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