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NAME

       tzfile - timezone information

DESCRIPTION

       The timezone information files used by tzset(3) are typically found under a directory with
       a name like /usr/share/zoneinfo.  These files begin with a 44-byte header  containing  the
       following fields:

       * The  magic four-byte ASCII sequence “TZif” identifies the file as a timezone information
         file.

       * A byte identifying the version of the file's format (as of 2017, either an ASCII NUL, or
         “2”, or “3”).

       * Fifteen bytes containing zeros reserved for future use.

       * Six  four-byte  integer  values written in a standard byte order (the high-order byte of
         the value is written first).  These values are, in order:

         tzh_ttisgmtcnt
                The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.

         tzh_ttisstdcnt
                The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file.

         tzh_leapcnt
                The number of leap seconds for which data entries are stored in the file.

         tzh_timecnt
                The number of transition times for which data entries are stored in the file.

         tzh_typecnt
                The number of local time types for which data entries  are  stored  in  the  file
                (must not be zero).

         tzh_charcnt
                The number of bytes of time zone abbreviation strings stored in the file.

       The above header is followed by the following fields, whose lengths depend on the contents
       of the header:

       * tzh_timecnt four-byte signed integer values sorted in ascending order.  These values are
         written  in  standard  byte  order.   Each  is used as a transition time (as returned by
         time(2)) at which the rules for computing local time change.

       * tzh_timecnt one-byte unsigned integer values; each one but the last tells which  of  the
         different  types  of  local time types described in the file is associated with the time
         period starting with the same-indexed transition time  and  continuing  up  to  but  not
         including the next transition time.  (The last time type is present only for consistency
         checking with the POSIX-style TZ string described below.)  These values serve as indices
         into the next field.

       * tzh_typecnt ttinfo entries, each defined as follows:

              struct ttinfo {
                   int32_t        tt_gmtoff;
                   unsigned char  tt_isdst;
                   unsigned char  tt_abbrind;
              };

         Each  structure  is  written  as  a  four-byte  signed integer value for tt_gmtoff, in a
         standard byte order, followed by a one-byte value for tt_isdst and a one-byte value  for
         tt_abbrind.  In each structure, tt_gmtoff gives the number of seconds to be added to UT,
         tt_isdst tells whether tm_isdst should be set by localtime(3) and tt_abbrind  serves  as
         an  index  into  the  array  of  time  zone  abbreviation  bytes  that follow the ttinfo
         structure(s) in the file.

       * tzh_leapcnt pairs of four-byte values, written in standard byte order; the  first  value
         of  each pair gives the nonnegative time (as returned by time(2)) at which a leap second
         occurs; the second gives the total number of leap seconds to be applied during the  time
         period starting at the given time.  The pairs of values are sorted in ascending order by
         time.  Each transition is for one leap second, either positive or negative;  transitions
         always separated by at least 28 days minus 1 second.

       * tzh_ttisstdcnt  standard/wall  indicators,  each  stored  as a one-byte value; they tell
         whether the transition times associated with local time types were specified as standard
         time  or  wall  clock time, and are used when a timezone file is used in handling POSIX-
         style timezone environment variables.

       * tzh_ttisgmtcnt UT/local indicators, each stored as a one-byte value; they  tell  whether
         the  transition  times  associated  with  local time types were specified as UT or local
         time, and are used when a  timezone  file  is  used  in  handling  POSIX-style  timezone
         environment variables.

       The  localtime(3)  function  uses the first standard-time ttinfo structure in the file (or
       simply the first ttinfo structure in the absence of a standard-time structure)  if  either
       tzh_timecnt  is  zero or the time argument is less than the first transition time recorded
       in the file.

NOTES

       This manual page documents <tzfile.h> in the glibc source archive, see timezone/tzfile.h.

       It seems that timezone  uses  tzfile  internally,  but  glibc  refuses  to  expose  it  to
       userspace.   This  is  most  likely because the standardised functions are more useful and
       portable, and actually documented by glibc.  It may only be in glibc just to  support  the
       non-glibc-maintained timezone data (which is maintained by some other entity).

   Version 2 format
       For  version-2-format  timezone  files, the above header and data are followed by a second
       header and data, identical in format except that eight bytes are used for each  transition
       time  or  leap  second  time.   (Leap  second counts remain four bytes.)  After the second
       header and data comes a newline-enclosed, POSIX-TZ-environment-variable-style  string  for
       use  in  handling  instants  after  the last transition time stored in the file or for all
       instants if the file has no transitions.   The  POSIX-style  TZ  string  is  empty  (i.e.,
       nothing  between  the newlines) if there is no POSIX representation for such instants.  If
       nonempty, the POSIX-style TZ string must agree with the local time  type  after  the  last
       transition  time  if  present  in  the  eight-byte  data;  for  example,  given the string
       “WET0WEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3” then if a last transition time is in  July,  the  transition's
       local  time  type  must specify a daylight-saving time abbreviated “WEST” that is one hour
       east of UT.  Also, if there is at least one transition, time type 0 is associated with the
       time period from the indefinite past up to but not including the earliest transition time.

   Version 3 format
       For  version-3-format  timezone  files,  the  POSIX-TZ-style  string  may  use  two  minor
       extensions to the POSIX TZ format, as described in newtzset(3).  First, the hours part  of
       its  transition  times may be signed and range from -167 through 167 instead of the POSIX-
       required unsigned values from 0 through 24.  Second, DST is  in  effect  all  year  if  it
       starts  January  1  at  00:00  and  ends  December 31 at 24:00 plus the difference between
       daylight saving and standard time.

       Future changes to the format may append more data.

SEE ALSO

       time(2), localtime(3), tzset(3), tzselect(8), zdump(8), zic(8)

COLOPHON

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       found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

                                            2019-03-06                                  TZFILE(5)