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TZSET(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual TZSET(3)
NAME
tzset - initialize time conversion information
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
void
tzset(void);
DESCRIPTION
The tzset() function initializes time conversion information used by the
library routine localtime(3). The environment variable TZ specifies how
this is done.
If TZ does not appear in the environment, the best available
approximation to local wall clock time, as specified by the
tzfile(5)-format file /etc/localtime is used.
If TZ appears in the environment but its value is a null string,
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is used (without leap second
correction).
If TZ appears in the environment and its value begins with a colon (`:'),
the rest of its value is used as a pathname of a tzfile(5)-format file
from which to read the time conversion information. If the first
character of the pathname is a slash (`/') it is used as an absolute
pathname; otherwise, it is used as a pathname relative to the system time
conversion information directory.
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.
If the TZ environment variable does not specify a tzfile(5)-format file
and cannot be interpreted as a direct specification, UTC is used.
SPECIFICATION FORMAT
When TZ is used directly as a specification of the time conversion
information, it must have the following syntax (spaces inserted for
clarity):
std offset [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.
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 interpreted as a decimal
number. The hour must be between zero and 24, and the
minutes (and seconds) -- 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 second 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:
J n 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.
M m.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 the TZ specification, the
rules specified by the tzfile(5)-format 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 file /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC does not exist, UTC leap seconds are
loaded from /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules.
SEE ALSO
date(1), gettimeofday(2), ctime(3), getenv(3), time(3), tzfile(5)
HISTORY
The tzset() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.
FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11 March 6, 2023 FreeBSD 14.0-RELEASE-p11