Zic 8
Zic 8
NAME
zic - timezone compiler
SYNOPSIS
zic [ option ... ] [ filename ... ]
DESCRIPTION
The zic program reads text from the file(s) named on the command line
and creates the timezone information format (TZif) files specified in
this input. If a filename is "-", standard input is read.
OPTIONS
--version
Output version information and exit.
-b bloat
Output backward-compatibility data as specified by bloat. If
bloat is fat, generate additional data entries that work around
potential bugs or incompatibilities in older software, such as
software that mishandles the 64-bit generated data. If bloat is
slim, keep the output files small; this can help check for the
bugs and incompatibilities. The default is slim, as software
that mishandles 64-bit data typically mishandles timestamps
after the year 2038 anyway. Also see the -r option for another
way to alter output size.
-d directory
Create time conversion information files in the named directory
rather than in the standard directory named below.
-l timezone
Use timezone as local time. zic will act as if the input
contained a link line of the form
-L leapsecondfilename
Read leap second information from the file with the given name.
If this option is not used, no leap second information appears
in output files.
-p timezone
Use timezone's rules when handling nonstandard TZ strings like
"EET-2EEST" that lack transition rules. zic will act as if the
input contained a link line of the form
-r [@lo][/@hi]
Limit the applicability of output files to timestamps in the
range from lo (inclusive) to hi (exclusive), where lo and hi are
possibly signed decimal counts of seconds since the Epoch
(1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC). Omitted counts default to extreme
values. The output files use UT offset 0 and abbreviation "-00"
in place of the omitted timestamp data. For example, "zic -r
@0" omits data intended for negative timestamps (i.e., before
the Epoch), and "zic -r @0/@2147483648" outputs data intended
only for nonnegative timestamps that fit into 31-bit signed
integers. On platforms with GNU date, "zic -r @$(date +%s)"
omits data intended for past timestamps. Although this option
typically reduces the output file's size, the size can increase
due to the need to represent the timestamp range boundaries,
particularly if hi causes a TZif file to contain explicit
entries for pre-hi transitions rather than concisely
representing them with a proleptic TZ string. Also see the -b
slim option for another way to shrink output size.
-t file
When creating local time information, put the configuration link
in the named file rather than in the standard location.
The output file does not contain all the information about the
long-term future of a timezone, because the future cannot be
summarized as a proleptic TZ string. For example, as of 2023
this problem occurs for Morocco's daylight-saving rules, as
these rules are based on predictions for when Ramadan will be
observed, something that a proleptic TZ string cannot represent.
The output file contains more than 1200 transitions, which may
be mishandled by some clients. The current reference client
supports at most 2000 transitions; pre-2014 versions of the
reference client support at most 1200 transitions.
FILES
Input files use the format described in this section; output files use
tzfile(5) format.
Input files should be text files, that is, they should be a series of
zero or more lines, each ending in a newline byte and containing at
most 2048 bytes counting the newline, and without any NUL bytes. The
input text's encoding is typically UTF-8 or ASCII; it should have a
unibyte representation for the POSIX Portable Character Set (PPCS)
<https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/basedefs/V1_chap06
.html> and the encoding's non-unibyte characters should consist
entirely of non-PPCS bytes. Non-PPCS characters typically occur only
in comments: although output file names and time zone abbreviations can
contain nearly any character, other software will work better if these
are limited to the restricted syntax described under the -v option.
Input lines are made up of fields. Fields are separated from one
another by one or more white space characters. The white space
characters are space, form feed, carriage return, newline, tab, and
vertical tab. Leading and trailing white space on input lines is
ignored. An unquoted sharp character (#) in the input introduces a
comment which extends to the end of the line the sharp character
appears on. White space characters and sharp characters may be
enclosed in double quotes (") if they're to be used as part of a field.
Any line that is blank (after comment stripping) is ignored. Nonblank
lines are expected to be of one of three types: rule lines, zone lines,
and link lines.
Names must be in English and are case insensitive. They appear in
several contexts, and include month and weekday names and keywords such
as maximum, only, Rolling, and Zone. A name can be abbreviated by
omitting all but an initial prefix; any abbreviation must be
unambiguous in context.
For example:
NAME Gives the name of the rule set that contains this line. The
name must start with a character that is neither an ASCII digit
nor "-" nor "+". To allow for future extensions, an unquoted
name should not contain characters from the set
"!$%&'()*,/:;<=>?@[\]^`{|}~".
FROM Gives the first year in which the rule applies. Any signed
integer year can be supplied; the proleptic Gregorian calendar
is assumed, with year 0 preceding year 1. Rules can describe
times that are not representable as time values, with the
unrepresentable times ignored; this allows rules to be portable
among hosts with differing time value types.
TO Gives the final year in which the rule applies. The word
maximum (or an abbreviation) means the indefinite future, and
the word only (or an abbreviation) may be used to repeat the
value of the FROM field.
IN Names the month in which the rule takes effect. Month names may
be abbreviated as mentioned previously; for example, January can
appear as "January", "JANU" or "Ja", but not as "j" which would
be ambiguous with both June and July.
ON Gives the day on which the rule takes effect. Recognized forms
include:
AT Gives the time of day at which the rule takes effect, relative
to 00:00, the start of a calendar day. Recognized forms
include:
2 time in hours
2:00 time in hours and minutes
01:28:14 time in hours, minutes, and seconds
00:19:32.13 time with fractional seconds
12:00 midday, 12 hours after 00:00
15:00 3 PM, 15 hours after 00:00
24:00 end of day, 24 hours after 00:00
260:00 260 hours after 00:00
-2:30 2.5 hours before 00:00
- equivalent to 0
SAVE Gives the amount of time to be added to local standard time when
the rule is in effect, and whether the resulting time is
standard or daylight saving. This field has the same format as
the AT field except with a different set of suffix letters: s
for standard time and d for daylight saving time. The suffix
letter is typically omitted, and defaults to s if the offset is
zero and to d otherwise. Negative offsets are allowed; in
Ireland, for example, daylight saving time is observed in winter
and has a negative offset relative to Irish Standard Time. The
offset is merely added to standard time; for example, zic does
not distinguish a 10:30 standard time plus an 0:30 SAVE from a
10:00 standard time plus a 1:00 SAVE.
LETTER/S
Gives the "variable part" (for example, the "S" or "D" in "EST"
or "EDT") of time zone abbreviations to be used when this rule
is in effect. If this field is "-", the variable part is null.
For example:
Zone Asia/Amman 2:00 Jordan EE%sT 2017 Oct 27 01:00
NAME The name of the timezone. This is the name used in creating the
time conversion information file for the timezone. It should
not contain a file name component "." or ".."; a file name
component is a maximal substring that does not contain "/".
RULES The name of the rules that apply in the timezone or,
alternatively, a field in the same format as a rule-line SAVE
field, giving the amount of time to be added to local standard
time and whether the resulting time is standard or daylight
saving. Standard time applies if this field is - or for
timestamps occurring before any rule takes effect. When an
amount of time is given, only the sum of standard time and this
amount matters.
FORMAT The format for time zone abbreviations. The pair of characters
%s shows where to put the time zone abbreviation's variable
part, which is taken from the LETTER/S field of the
corresponding rule; any timestamps that precede the earliest
rule use the LETTER/S of the earliest standard-time rule (which
in this case must exist). Alternatively, a format can use the
pair of characters %z to stand for the UT offset in the form
+-hh, +-hhmm, or +-hhmmss, using the shortest form that does not
lose information, where hh, mm, and ss are the hours, minutes,
and seconds east (+) or west (-) of UT. Alternatively, a slash
(/) separates standard and daylight abbreviations. To conform
to POSIX, a time zone abbreviation should contain only
alphanumeric ASCII characters, "+" and "-". By convention, the
time zone abbreviation "-00" is a placeholder that means local
time is unspecified.
UNTIL The time at which the UT offset or the rule(s) change for a
location. It takes the form of one to four fields YEAR [MONTH
[DAY [TIME]]]. If this is specified, the time zone information
is generated from the given UT offset and rule change until the
time specified, which is interpreted using the rules in effect
just before the transition. The month, day, and time of day
have the same format as the IN, ON, and AT fields of a rule;
trailing fields can be omitted, and default to the earliest
possible value for the missing fields.
The next line must be a "continuation" line; this has the same
form as a zone line except that the string "Zone" and the name
are omitted, as the continuation line will place information
starting at the time specified as the "until" information in the
previous line in the file used by the previous line.
Continuation lines may contain "until" information, just as zone
lines do, indicating that the next line is a further
continuation.
If a zone changes at the same instant that a rule would otherwise take
effect in the earlier zone or continuation line, the rule is ignored.
A zone or continuation line L with a named rule set starts with
standard time by default: that is, any of L's timestamps preceding L's
earliest rule use the rule in effect after L's first transition into
standard time. In a single zone it is an error if two rules take
effect at the same instant, or if two zone changes take effect at the
same instant.
For example:
The TARGET field should appear as the NAME field in some zone line or
as the LINK-NAME field in some link line. The LINK-NAME field is used
as an alternative name for that zone; it has the same syntax as a zone
line's NAME field. Links can chain together, although the behavior is
unspecified if a chain of one or more links does not terminate in a
Zone name. A link line can appear before the line that defines the
link target. For example:
The two links are chained together, and G_M_T, Greenwich, and Etc/GMT
all name the same zone.
Except for continuation lines, lines may appear in any order in the
input. However, the behavior is unspecified if multiple zone or link
lines define the same name.
The file that describes leap seconds can have leap lines and an
expiration line. Leap lines have the following form:
For example:
The YEAR, MONTH, DAY, and HH:MM:SS fields tell when the leap second
happened. The CORR field should be "+" if a second was added or "-" if
a second was skipped. The R/S field should be (an abbreviation of)
"Stationary" if the leap second time given by the other fields should
be interpreted as UTC or (an abbreviation of) "Rolling" if the leap
second time given by the other fields should be interpreted as local
(wall clock) time.
Rolling leap seconds would let one see Times Square ball drops where
there'd be a "3... 2... 1... leap... Happy New Year" countdown, placing
the leap second at midnight New York time rather than midnight UTC.
Although stationary leap seconds are the common practice, rolling leap
seconds can be useful in specialized applications like SMPTE timecodes
that may prefer to put leap second discontinuities at the end of a
local broadcast day. However, rolling leap seconds are not supported
if the -r option is used.
For example:
The YEAR, MONTH, DAY, and HH:MM:SS fields give the expiration timestamp
in UTC for the leap second table.
EXTENDED EXAMPLE
Here is an extended example of zic input, intended to illustrate many
of its features.
In this example, the EU rules are for the European Union and for its
predecessor organization, the European Communities. The timezone is
named Europe/Zurich and it has the alias Europe/Vaduz. This example
says that Zurich was 34 minutes and 8 seconds east of UT until
1853-07-16 at 00:00, when the legal offset was changed to 7 degrees 26
minutes 22.50 seconds, which works out to 0:29:45.50; zic treats this
by rounding it to 0:29:46. After 1894-06-01 at 00:00 the UT offset
became one hour and Swiss daylight saving rules (defined with lines
beginning with "Rule Swiss") apply. From 1981 to the present, EU
daylight saving rules have applied, and the UTC offset has remained at
one hour.
In 1941 and 1942, daylight saving time applied from the first Monday in
May at 01:00 to the first Monday in October at 02:00. The pre-1981 EU
daylight-saving rules have no effect here, but are included for
completeness. Since 1981, daylight saving has begun on the last Sunday
in March at 01:00 UTC. Until 1995 it ended the last Sunday in
September at 01:00 UTC, but this changed to the last Sunday in October
starting in 1996.
FILES
/etc/localtime
Default local timezone file.
/usr/share/zoneinfo
Default timezone information directory.
NOTES
For areas with more than two types of local time, you may need to use
local standard time in the AT field of the earliest transition time's
rule to ensure that the earliest transition time recorded in the
compiled file is correct.
SEE ALSO
tzfile(5), zdump(8)