tzset(3) Library Functions Manual tzset(3)
NAME
tzset, tzname, timezone, daylight - initialize time conversion information
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h>
void tzset(void);
extern char *tzname[2];
extern long timezone;
extern int daylight;
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
tzset():
_POSIX_C_SOURCE
tzname:
_POSIX_C_SOURCE
timezone, daylight:
_XOPEN_SOURCE
|| /* glibc >= 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
|| /* glibc <= 2.19: */ _SVID_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
The tzset() function initializes the tzname variable from the TZ environment variable. This function is automatically
called by the other time conversion functions that depend on the timezone. In a System-V-like environment, it will also set
the variables timezone (seconds West of UTC) and daylight (to 0 if this timezone does not have any daylight saving time
rules, or to nonzero if there is a time, past, present, or future when daylight saving time applies).
If the TZ variable does not appear in the environment, the system timezone is used. The system timezone is configured by
copying, or linking, a file in the tzfile(5) format to /etc/localtime. A timezone database of these files may be located in
the system timezone directory (see the FILES section below).
If the TZ variable does appear in the environment, but its value is empty, or its value cannot be interpreted using any of
the formats specified below, then Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is used.
The value of TZ can be one of two formats. The first format is a string of characters that directly represent the timezone
to be used:
std offset[dst[offset][,start[/time],end[/time]]]
There are no spaces in the specification. The std string specifies an abbreviation for the timezone and must be three or
more alphabetic characters. When enclosed between the less-than (<) and greater-than (>) signs, the character set is ex‐
panded to include the plus (+) sign, the minus (-) sign, and digits. The offset string immediately follows std and speci‐
fies the time value to be added to the local time to get Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The offset is positive if the
local timezone is west of the Prime Meridian and negative if it is east. The hour must be between 0 and 24, and the minutes
and seconds 00 and 59:
[+|-]hh[:mm[:ss]]
The dst string and offset specify the name and offset for the corresponding daylight saving timezone. If the offset is
omitted, it defaults to one hour ahead of standard time.
The start field specifies when daylight saving time goes into effect and the end field specifies when the change is made
back to standard time. These fields may have the following formats:
Jn This specifies the Julian day with n between 1 and 365. Leap days are not counted. In this format, February 29
can't be represented; February 28 is day 59, and March 1 is always day 60.
n This specifies the zero-based Julian day with n between 0 and 365. February 29 is counted in leap years.
Mm.w.d This specifies day d (0 <= d <= 6) of week w (1 <= w <= 5) of month m (1 <= m <= 12). Week 1 is the first week in
which day d occurs and week 5 is the last week in which day d occurs. Day 0 is a Sunday.
The time fields specify when, in the local time currently in effect, the change to the other time occurs. If omitted, the
default is 02:00:00.
Here is an example for New Zealand, where the standard time (NZST) is 12 hours ahead of UTC, and daylight saving time
(NZDT), 13 hours ahead of UTC, runs from the first Sunday in October to the third Sunday in March, and the changeovers hap‐
pen at the default time of 02:00:00:
TZ="NZST-12:00:00NZDT-13:00:00,M10.1.0,M3.3.0"
The second format specifies that the timezone information should be read from a file:
:[filespec]
If the file specification filespec is omitted, or its value cannot be interpreted, then Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is
used. If filespec is given, it specifies another tzfile(5)-format file to read the timezone information from. If filespec
does not begin with a '/', the file specification is relative to the system timezone directory. If the colon is omitted
each of the above TZ formats will be tried.
Here's an example, once more for New Zealand:
TZ=":Pacific/Auckland"
ENVIRONMENT
TZ If this variable is set its value takes precedence over the system configured timezone.
TZDIR If this variable is set its value takes precedence over the system configured timezone database directory path.
FILES
/etc/localtime
The system timezone file.
/usr/share/zoneinfo/
The system timezone database directory.
/usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules
When a TZ string includes a dst timezone without anything following it, then this file is used for the start/end
rules. It is in the tzfile(5) format. By default, the zoneinfo Makefile hard links it to the America/New_York tz‐
file.
Above are the current standard file locations, but they are configurable when glibc is compiled.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬────────────────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼────────────────────┤
│tzset() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe env locale │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴────────────────────┘
STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
NOTES
4.3BSD had a function char *timezone(zone, dst) that returned the name of the timezone corresponding to its first argument
(minutes West of UTC). If the second argument was 0, the standard name was used, otherwise the daylight saving time ver‐
sion.
SEE ALSO
date(1), gettimeofday(2), time(2), ctime(3), getenv(3), tzfile(5)
Linux man-pages 6.03 2023-02-05 tzset(3)