NEWTZSET(3)NEWTZSET(3)NAME
tzset - initialize time conversion information
SYNOPSIS
void tzset()
cc ... -ltz
DESCRIPTION
Tzset uses the value of the environment variable TZ to set time conver‐
sion information used by localtime. If TZ does not appear in the envi‐
ronment, the best available approximation to local wall clock time, as
specified by the tzfile(5)-format file localtime in the system time
conversion information directory, is used by localtime. If TZ appears
in the environment but its value is a null string, Coordinated Univer‐
sal Time (UTC) is used (without leap second correction). If TZ appears
in the environment and its value is not a null string:
if the value begins with a colon, it is used as a pathname of a
file from which to read the time conversion information;
if the value does not begin with a colon, it is first used as
the pathname of a file from which to read the time conversion
information, and, if that file cannot be read, is used directly
as a specification of the time conversion information.
When TZ is used as a pathname, if it begins with a slash, it is used as
an absolute pathname; otherwise, it is used as a pathname relative to a
system time conversion information directory. The file must be in the
format specified in tzfile(5).
When TZ is used directly as a specification of the time conversion
information, it must have the following syntax (spaces inserted for
clarity):
stdoffset[dst[offset][,rule]]
Where:
std and dst Three or more bytes that are the designation for
the standard (std) or summer (dst) time zone.
Only std is required; if dst is missing, then
summer time does not apply in this locale.
Upper- and lowercase letters are explicitly
allowed. Any characters except a leading colon
(:), digits, comma (,), minus (−), plus (+), and
ASCII NUL are allowed.
offset Indicates the value one must add to the local
time to arrive at Coordinated Universal Time.
The offset has the form:
hh[:mm[:ss]]
The minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) are optional.
The hour (hh) is required and may be a single
digit. The offset following std is required. If
no offset follows dst, summer time is assumed to
be one hour ahead of standard time. One or more
digits may be used; the value is always inter‐
preted as a decimal number. The hour must be
between zero and 24, and the minutes (and sec‐
onds) — if present — between zero and 59. If
preceded by a ``−'', the time zone shall be east
of the Prime Meridian; otherwise it shall be west
(which may be indicated by an optional preceding
``+'').
rule Indicates when to change to and back from summer
time. The rule has the form:
date/time,date/time
where the first date describes when the change
from standard to summer time occurs and the sec‐
ond date describes when the change back happens.
Each time field describes when, in current local
time, the change to the other time is made.
The format of date is 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
the occasional February 29.
n The zero-based Julian day
(0 ≤ n ≤ 365). Leap days are counted,
and it is possible to refer to February
29.
Mm.n.d The d'th day (0 ≤ d ≤ 6) of week n of
month m of the year (1 ≤ n ≤ 5,
1 ≤ m ≤ 12, where week 5 means ``the
last d day in month m'' which may occur
in either the fourth or the fifth
week). Week 1 is the first week in
which the d'th day occurs. Day zero is
Sunday.
The time has the same format as offset except
that no leading sign (``−'' or ``+'') is allowed.
The default, if time is not given, is 02:00:00.
If no rule is present in TZ, the rules specified by the tzfile(5)-for‐
mat file posixrules in the system time conversion information directory
are used, with the standard and summer time offsets from UTC replaced
by those specified by the offset values in TZ.
For compatibility with System V Release 3.1, a semicolon (;) may be
used to separate the rule from the rest of the specification.
If the TZ environment variable does not specify a tzfile(5)-format and
cannot be interpreted as a direct specification, UTC is used.
FILES
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo time zone information directory
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/localtime local time zone file
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/posixrules used with POSIX-style TZ's
/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/GMT for UTC leap seconds
If /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/GMT is absent, UTC leap seconds are loaded
from /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo/posixrules.
SEE ALSOgetenv(3), newctime(3), newstrftime(3), time(2), tzfile(5)NEWTZSET(3)
