.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Arthur Olson. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd December 25, 2023 .Dt TZSET 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm daylight , .Nm timezone , .Nm tzname , .Nm tzset .Nd initialize time conversion information .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In time.h .Vt extern int daylight ; .Vt extern long timezone ; .Vt extern char *tzname[2] ; .Ft void .Fn tzset void .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn tzset function initializes time conversion information used by the library routine .Xr localtime 3 . The environment variable .Ev TZ specifies how this is done. .Pp If .Ev TZ does not appear in the environment, the best available approximation to local wall clock time, as specified by the .Xr tzfile 5 Ns -format file .Pa /etc/localtime is used. .Pp If .Ev TZ appears in the environment but its value is a null string, Coordinated Universal Time .Pq Tn UTC is used (without leap second correction). .Pp If .Ev TZ appears in the environment and its value begins with a colon .Pq Ql \&: , the rest of its value is used as a pathname of a .Xr tzfile 5 Ns -format file from which to read the time conversion information. If the first character of the pathname is a slash .Pq Ql / it is used as an absolute pathname; otherwise, it is used as a pathname relative to the system time conversion information directory. .Pp If its value does not begin with a colon, it is first used as the pathname of a file (as described above) from which to read the time conversion information. If that file cannot be read, the value is then interpreted as a direct specification (the format is described below) of the time conversion information. .Pp If the .Ev TZ environment variable does not specify a .Xr tzfile 5 Ns -format file and cannot be interpreted as a direct specification, .Tn UTC is used. .Pp After the first call to .Nm tzset , the .Vt timezone variable is set to the difference, in seconds, between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) and the local time. The .Vt daylight variable is set to 0 if the local timezone is observing standard time. It is set to 1 if the local timezone ever observes an alternate time, such as summer time. The first element of the .Vt tzname array is the timezone name of standard time, while the second element is the name of the altnerative time zone. .Sh SPECIFICATION FORMAT When .Ev TZ is used directly as a specification of the time conversion information, it must have the following syntax (spaces inserted for clarity): .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Em std offset .Bo .Em dst .Bq Em offset .Bq , Em rule .Bc .Ed .Pp Where: .Bl -tag -width std_and_dst -offset indent .It Em std No and Em dst Three or more bytes that are the designation for the standard .Pq Em std or summer .Pq Em dst time zone. Only .Em std is required; if .Em 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 .Pq Ql \&: , digits, comma .Pq Ql \&, , minus .Pq Ql \- , plus .Pq Ql + , and .Tn ASCII .Dv NUL are allowed. .It Em offset Indicates the value one must add to the local time to arrive at Coordinated Universal Time. The .Em offset has the form: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Sm off .Em hh Bo .Em : mm .Bq Em : ss .Bc .Sm on .Ed .Pp The minutes .Pq Em mm and seconds .Pq Em ss are optional. The hour .Pq Em hh is required and may be a single digit. The .Em offset following .Em std is required. If no .Em offset follows .Em dst , summer time is assumed to be one hour ahead of standard time. One or more digits may be used; the value is always interpreted as a decimal number. The hour must be between zero and 24, and the minutes (and seconds) \(em if present \(em between zero and 59. If preceded by a .Pq Ql \- the time zone shall be east of the Prime Meridian; otherwise it shall be west (which may be indicated by an optional preceding .Pq Ql + ) . .It Em rule Indicates when to change to and back from summer time. The .Em rule has the form: .Bd -ragged -offset indent .Em date/time,date/time .Ed .Pp where the first .Em date describes when the change from standard to summer time occurs and the second .Em date describes when the change back happens. Each .Em time field describes when, in current local time, the change to the other time is made. .Pp The format of .Em date is one of the following: .Bl -tag -width "M.m.n.d" .It Sy J Em n The Julian day .Em n (1 \*(Le .Em n \*(Le 365). Leap days are not counted; that is, in all years \(em including leap years \(em February 28 is day 59 and March 1 is day 60. It is impossible to explicitly refer to the occasional February 29. .It Em n The zero-based Julian day (0 \*(Le .Em n \*(Le 365 ) . Leap days are counted, and it is possible to refer to February 29. .It Sy M Em m.n.d The .Em d Ns 'th day (0 \*(Le .Em d \*(Le 6) of week .Em n of month .Em m of the year (1 \*(Le .Em n \*(Le 5), (1 \*(Le .Em m \*(Le 12), where week 5 means .Do the last .Em d day in month .Em m .Dc which may occur in either the fourth or the fifth week). Week 1 is the first week in which the .Em d Ns 'th day occurs. Day zero is Sunday. .Pp The .Em time has the same format as .Em offset except that no leading sign .Pq Ql \- or .Pq Ql + is allowed. The default, if .Em time is not given, is .Sy 02:00:00 . .El .Pp If no .Em rule is present in the .Ev TZ specification, the rules specified by the .Xr tzfile 5 Ns -format file .Em posixrules in the system time conversion information directory are used, with the standard and summer time offsets from .Tn UTC replaced by those specified by the .Em offset values in .Ev TZ . .El .Pp For compatibility with System V Release 3.1, a semicolon .Pq Ql \&; may be used to separate the .Em rule from the rest of the specification. .Sh FILES .Bl -tag -width /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules -compact .It Pa /etc/localtime local time zone file .It Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo time zone directory .It Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules rules for .Tn POSIX Ns -style .Tn TZ Ns 's .It Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo/Etc/GMT for .Tn UTC leap seconds .El .Pp If the file .Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC does not exist, .Tn UTC leap seconds are loaded from .Pa /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr date 1 , .Xr gettimeofday 2 , .Xr ctime 3 , .Xr getenv 3 , .Xr time 3 , .Xr tzfile 5 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn tzset function first appeared in .Bx 4.4 .