NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | FILES | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

ZIC(8)                   Linux System Administration                  ZIC(8)

NAME         top

       zic - timezone compiler

SYNOPSIS         top

       zic [-v] [-d directory] [-l localtime] [-p posixrules]
           [-L leapsecondfilename] [-s] [-y command] [filename...]

DESCRIPTION         top

       The zic program reads text from the file(s) named on the command line
       and creates the time conversion information files specified in this
       input.  If a filename is -, standard input is read.
       These options are available:
       -d directory
              Create time conversion information files in the named
              directory rather than in the standard directory named below.
       -l timezone
              Use the given timezone as local time.  zic will act as if the
              input contained a link line of the form
                   Link timezone       localtime
       -p timezone
              Use the given timezone's rules when handling POSIX-format
              timezone environment variables.  zic will act as if the input
              contained a link line of the form
                   Link timezone       posixrules
       -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.
       -v     Complain if a year that appears in a data file is outside the
              range of years representable by time(2) values.
       -s     Limit time values stored in output files to values that are
              the same whether they're taken to be signed or unsigned.  You
              can use this option to generate SVVS-compatible files.
       -y command
              Use the given command rather than yearistype when checking
              year types (see below).
       Input lines are made up of fields.  Fields are separated from one
       another by any number of white space characters.  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.
       A rule line has the form
            Rule  NAME  FROM  TO    TYPE  IN   ON       AT    SAVE  LETTER/S
       For example:
            Rule  US    1967  1973  -     Apr  lastSun  2:00  1:00  D
       The fields that make up a rule line are:
       NAME    Gives the (arbitrary) name of the set of rules this rule is
               part of.
       FROM    Gives the first year in which the rule applies.  Any integer
               year can be supplied; the Gregorian calendar is assumed.  The
               word minimum (or an abbreviation) means the minimum year
               representable as an integer.  The word maximum (or an
               abbreviation) means the maximum year representable as an
               integer.  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.  In addition
               to minimum and maximum (as above), the word only (or an
               abbreviation) may be used to repeat the value of the FROM
               field.
       TYPE    Gives the type of year in which the rule applies.  If TYPE is
               -, then the rule applies in all years between FROM and TO
               inclusive.  If TYPE is something else, then zic executes the
               command
                    yearistype year type
               to check the type of a year: an exit status of zero is taken
               to mean that the year is of the given type; an exit status of
               one is taken to mean that the year is not of the given type.
       IN      Names the month in which the rule takes effect.  Month names
               may be abbreviated.
       ON      Gives the day on which the rule takes effect.  Recognized
               forms include:
                    5        the fifth of the month
                    lastSun  the last Sunday in the month
                    lastMon  the last Monday in the month
                    Sun>=8   first Sunday on or after the eighth
                    Sun<=25  last Sunday on or before the 25th
               Names of days of the week may be abbreviated or spelled out
               in full.  Note that there must be no spaces within the ON
               field.
       AT      Gives the time of day at which the rule takes effect.
               Recognized forms include:
                    2        time in hours
                    2:00     time in hours and minutes
                    15:00    24-hour format time (for times after noon)
                    1:28:14  time in hours, minutes, and seconds
                    -        equivalent to 0
               where hour 0 is midnight at the start of the day, and hour 24
               is midnight at the end of the day.  Any of these forms may be
               followed by the letter w if the given time is local "wall
               clock" time, s if the given time is local "standard" time, or
               u (or g or z) if the given time is universal time; in the
               absence of an indicator, wall clock time is assumed.
       SAVE    Gives the amount of time to be added to local standard time
               when the rule is in effect.  This field has the same format
               as the AT field (although, of course, the w and s suffixes
               are not used).
       LETTER/S
               Gives the "variable part" (for example, the "S" or "D" in
               "EST" or "EDT") of timezone abbreviations to be used when
               this rule is in effect.  If this field is -, the variable
               part is null.
       A zone line has the form
            Zone  NAME                UTCOFF  RULES/SAVE  FORMAT  [UNTIL]
       For example:
            Zone  Australia/Adelaide  9:30    Aus         CST     1971 Oct 31 2:00
       The fields that make up a zone line are:
       NAME  The name of the timezone.  This is the name used in creating
             the time conversion information file for the zone.
       UTCOFF
             The amount of time to add to UTC to get standard time in this
             zone.  This field has the same format as the AT and SAVE fields
             of rule lines; begin the field with a minus sign if time must
             be subtracted from UTC.
       RULES/SAVE
             The name of the rule(s) that apply in the timezone or,
             alternately, an amount of time to add to local standard time.
             If this field is -, then standard time always applies in the
             timezone.
       FORMAT
             The format for timezone abbreviations in this timezone.  The
             pair of characters %s is used to show where the "variable part"
             of the timezone abbreviation goes.  Alternately, a slash (/)
             separates standard and daylight abbreviations.
       UNTIL The time at which the UTC offset or the rule(s) change for a
             location.  It is specified as a year, a month, a day, and a
             time of day.  If this is specified, the timezone information is
             generated from the given UTC offset and rule change until the
             time specified.  The month, day, and time of day have the same
             format as the IN, ON, and AT columns of a rule; trailing
             columns can be omitted, and default to the earliest possible
             value for the missing columns.
             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 field in the
             previous line in the file used by the previous line.
             Continuation lines may contain an UNTIL field, just as zone
             lines do, indicating that the next line is a further
             continuation.
       A link line has the form
            Link  LINK-FROM        LINK-TO
       For example:
            Link  Europe/Istanbul  Asia/Istanbul
       The LINK-FROM field should appear as the NAME field in some zone
       line; the LINK-TO field is used as an alternate name for that zone.
       Except for continuation lines, lines may appear in any order in the
       input.
       Lines in the file that describes leap seconds have the following
       form:
            Leap  YEAR  MONTH  DAY  HH:MM:SS  CORR  R/S
       For example:
            Leap  1974  Dec    31   23:59:60  +     S
       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.

FILES         top

       /usr/local/etc/zoneinfo
              Standard directory used for created files.

NOTES         top

       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         top

       tzfile(5), zdump(8)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 4.12 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
       latest version of this page, can be found at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
                                 2010-02-25                           ZIC(8)

Pages that refer to this page: tzselect(8)zdump(8)