ZIC(8) BSD System Manager's Manual ZIC(8)NAMEzic - time zone compiler
SYNOPSISzic [-sv] [-d directory] [-L leapsecondfilename] [-l timezone]
[-p timezone] [-y command] [filename ...]
DESCRIPTIONzic 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 "-", the 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 leapsecondfilename
Read leap second information from the file with the given
name. If this option is not used, no leap second informa-
tion appears in output files.
-l timezone Use the given time zone 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 time zone's rules when handling POSIX-format
time zone environment variables. zic will act as if the in-
put contained a link line of the form
Link timezone posixrules
-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.
-v Complain if a year that appears in a data file is outside
the range of years representable by time(3) values. Also
complain if a time of 24:00 (which cannot be handled by
pre-1998 versions of zic) appears in the input.
-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 whitespace characters. Leading and trailing whitespace
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 char-
acter appears on. White space characters and sharp characters may be en-
closed in double quotes (") if they're to be used as part of a field. Any
line that is blank (after comment stripping) is ignored. Non-blank 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 abbrevia-
tion) 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 abbrevia-
tion) 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 in-
clusive. If TYPE is something else, then zic executes the com-
mand
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. Recog-
nized 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 time zone 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 GMTOFF 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 time zone. This is the name used in creating the
time conversion information file for the zone.
GMTOFF 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 time zone or, alter-
nately, an amount of time to add to local standard time. If this
field is "-" then standard time always applies in the time zone.
FORMAT The format for time zone abbreviations in this time zone. The
pair of characters %s is used to show where the "variable part"
of the time zone 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 lo-
cation. It is specified as a year, a month, a day, and a time of
day. If this is specified, the time zone information is generated
from the given UTC offset and rule change until the time speci-
fied. 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 omit-
ted, 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 in-
put.
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 hap-
pened. 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.
NOTES
For areas with more than two types of local time, you may need to use lo-
cal 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.
FILES
/etc/localtime link to local time zone
/usr/share/zoneinfo standard directory used for created files
SEE ALSOctime(3), tzfile(5), zdump(8)MirOS BSD #10-current May 23, 1999 3
