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ZIC(8) DragonFly System Manager's Manual ZIC(8)
NAME
zic -- timezone compiler
SYNOPSIS
zic [-Dsv] [-d directory] [-g group] [-L leapsecondfilename]
[-l localtime] [-m mode] [-p posixrules] [-u user] [-y command]
[filename ...]
DESCRIPTION
The zic utility 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.
The following options are available:
-D Do not automatically create directories. If the input file(s)
specify an output file in a directory which does not already
exist, the default behavior is to attempt to create the
directory. If -D is specified, zic will instead error out
immediately.
-d directory
Create time conversion information files in the named directory
rather than in the standard directory named below.
-g group
After creating each output file, change its group ownership to
the specified group (which can be either a name or a numeric
group ID).
-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.
-l timezone
Use the given time zone as local time. The zic utility will act
as if the input contained a link line of the form
Link timezone localtime
(Note that this action has no effect on DragonFly, since the
local time zone is specified in /etc/localtime and not
/usr/share/zoneinfo/localtime.)
-m mode
After creating each output file, change its access mode to mode.
Both numeric and alphabetic modes are accepted (see chmod(1)).
-p timezone
Use the given time zone's rules when handling POSIX-format time
zone environment variables. The zic utility will act as if the
input contained a link line of the form
Link timezone posixrules
-u user
After creating each output file, change its owner to user (which
can be either a name or a numeric user ID).
-v Be more verbose, and complain about the following situations:
The input data specifies a link to a link.
A year that appears in a data file is outside the range of years
representable by time(3) values.
A time of 24:00 or more appears in the input. Pre-1998 versions
of zic prohibit 24:00, and pre-2007 versions prohibit times
greater than 24:00.
A rule goes past the start or end of the month. Pre-2004
versions of zic prohibit this.
The output file does not contain all the information about the
long-term future of a zone, because the future cannot be
summarized as an extended POSIX TZ string. For example, as of
2013 this problem occurs for Iran's daylight-saving rules for the
predicted future, as these rules are based on the Iranian
calendar, which cannot be represented.
The output contains data that may not be handled properly by
client code designed for older zic output formats. These
compatibility issues affect only time stamps before 1970 or after
the start of 2038.
A time zone abbreviation has fewer than 3 characters. POSIX
requires at least 3.
-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 one or more 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. Non-blank
lines are expected to be of one of three types: rule lines, zone lines,
and link lines.
Names (such as month names) must be in English and are case insensitive.
Abbreviations, if used, must be unambiguous in context.
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 Give the (arbitrary) name of the set of rules this rule
is part of.
FROM Give 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 Give 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 Give 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 Name the month in which the rule takes effect. Month
names may be abbreviated.
ON Give 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 Give 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 Give 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 Give 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 [UNTILYEAR [MONTH [DAY
[TIME]]]]
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 UT 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 UT.
RULES/SAVE
The name of the rule(s) that apply in the time zone or,
alternately, 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. To conform to
POSIX, a time zone abbreviation should contain only alphanumeric
ASCII characters, ``+'' and ``-''.
UNTILYEAR [MONTH [DAY [TIME]]]
The time at which the UT 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 time zone information is
generated from the given UT 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 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.
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. However, the behavior is unspecified if multiple zone or link
lines define the same name, or if the source of one link line is the
target of another.
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
/usr/share/zoneinfo standard directory used for created files
EXAMPLES
Here is an extended example of zic input, intended to illustrate many of
its features.
# Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S
Rule Swiss 1941 1942 - May Mon>=1 1:00 1:00 S
Rule Swiss 1941 1942 - Oct Mon>=1 2:00 0 -
Rule EU 1977 1980 - Apr Sun>=1 1:00u 1:00 S
Rule EU 1977 only - Sep lastSun 1:00u 0 -
Rule EU 1978 only - Oct 1 1:00u 0 -
Rule EU 1979 1995 - Sep lastSun 1:00u 0 -
Rule EU 1981 max - Mar lastSun 1:00u 1:00 S
Rule EU 1996 max - Oct lastSun 1:00u 0 -
# Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES/SAVE FORMAT UNTIL
Zone Europe/Zurich 0:34:08 - LMT 1853 Jul 16
0:29:46 - BMT 1894 Jun
1:00 Swiss CE%sT 1981
1:00 EU CE%sT
Link Europe/Zurich Switzerland
In this example, the zone is named Europe/Zurich but it has an alias as
Switzerland. Zurich was 34 minutes and 8 seconds west of UT until
1853-07-16 at 00:00, when the offset changed to 7o26'22.50''; although
this works out to 0:29:45.50, the input format cannot represent
fractional seconds so it is rounded here. After 1894-06-01 at 00:00
Swiss daylight saving rules (defined with lines beginning with ``Rule
Swiss'') apply, and the UT offset became one hour. 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.
For purposes of display, ``LMT'' and ``BMT'' were initially used,
respectively. Since Swiss rules and later EU rules were applied, the
display name for the timezone has been CET for standard time and CEST for
daylight saving time.
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.
If, for a particular zone, a clock advance caused by the start of
daylight saving coincides with and is equal to a clock retreat caused by
a change in UT offset, zic produces a single transition to daylight
saving at the new UT offset (without any change in wall clock time). To
get separate transitions use multiple zone continuation lines specifying
transition instants using universal time.
SEE ALSO
ctime(3), tzfile(5), zdump(8)
DragonFly 4.3 March 22, 2016 DragonFly 4.3