tzfile(5)                     File Formats Manual                    tzfile(5)

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
       use the format described in Internet RFC 8536.  Each file is a sequence
       of 8-bit bytes.  In a file, a binary integer is represented by a
       sequence of one or more bytes in network order (bigendian, or high-
       order byte first), with all bits significant, a signed binary integer
       is represented using two's complement, and a boolean is represented by
       a one-byte binary integer that is either 0 (false) or 1 (true).  The
       format begins 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 2021,
         either an ASCII NUL, "2", "3", or "4").

       * Fifteen bytes containing zeros reserved for future use.

       * Six four-byte integer values, in the following order:

         tzh_ttisutcnt
                The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file.  (UT is
                Universal Time.)

         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 network 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_utoff;
                   unsigned char  tt_isdst;
                   unsigned char  tt_desigidx;
              };

         Each structure is written as a four-byte signed integer value for
         tt_utoff, in network byte order, followed by a one-byte boolean for
         tt_isdst and a one-byte value for tt_desigidx.  In each structure,
         tt_utoff gives the number of seconds to be added to UT, tt_isdst
         tells whether tm_isdst should be set by localtime(3) and tt_desigidx
         serves as an index into the array of time zone abbreviation bytes
         that follow the ttinfo entries in the file; if the designated string
         is "-00", the ttinfo entry is a placeholder indicating that local
         time is unspecified.  The tt_utoff value is never equal to -2**31, to
         let 32-bit clients negate it without overflow.  Also, in realistic
         applications tt_utoff is in the range [-89999, 93599] (i.e., more
         than -25 hours and less than 26 hours); this allows easy support by
         implementations that already support the POSIX-required range
         [-24:59:59, 25:59:59].

       * tzh_charcnt bytes that represent time zone designations, which are
         null-terminated byte strings, each indexed by the tt_desigidx values
         mentioned above.  The byte strings can overlap if one is a suffix of
         the other.  The encoding of these strings is not specified.

       * tzh_leapcnt pairs of four-byte values, written in network byte order;
         the first value of each pair gives the nonnegative time (as returned
         by time(2)) at which a leap second occurs or at which the leap second
         table expires; the second is a signed integer specifying the
         correction, which is 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 strictly ascending order by time.  Each pair
         denotes one leap second, either positive or negative, except that if
         the last pair has the same correction as the previous one, the last
         pair denotes the leap second table's expiration time.  Each leap
         second is at the end of a UTC calendar month.  The first leap second
         has a nonnegative occurrence time, and is a positive leap second if
         and only if its correction is positive; the correction for each leap
         second after the first differs from the previous leap second by
         either 1 for a positive leap second, or -1 for a negative leap
         second.  If the leap second table is empty, the leap-second
         correction is zero for all timestamps; otherwise, for timestamps
         before the first occurrence time, the leap-second correction is zero
         if the first pair's correction is 1 or -1, and is unspecified
         otherwise (which can happen only in files truncated at the start).

       * tzh_ttisstdcnt standard/wall indicators, each stored as a one-byte
         boolean; they tell whether the transition times associated with local
         time types were specified as standard time or local (wall clock)
         time.

       * tzh_ttisutcnt UT/local indicators, each stored as a one-byte boolean;
         they tell whether the transition times associated with local time
         types were specified as UT or local time.  If a UT/local indicator is
         set, the corresponding standard/wall indicator must also be set.

       The standard/wall and UT/local indicators were designed for
       transforming a TZif file's transition times into transitions
       appropriate for another time zone specified via a POSIX-style TZ string
       that lacks rules.  For example, when TZ="EET-2EEST" and there is no
       TZif file "EET-2EEST", the idea was to adapt the transition times from
       a TZif file with the well-known name "posixrules" that is present only
       for this purpose and is a copy of the file "Europe/Brussels", a file
       with a different UT offset.  POSIX does not specify this obsolete
       transformational behavior, the default rules are installation-
       dependent, and no implementation is known to support this feature for
       timestamps past 2037, so users desiring (say) Greek time should instead
       specify TZ="Europe/Athens" for better historical coverage, falling back
       on TZ="EET-2EEST,M3.5.0/3,M10.5.0/4" if POSIX conformance is required
       and older timestamps need not be handled accurately.

       The localtime(3) function normally uses the first ttinfo structure in
       the file if either tzh_timecnt is zero or the time argument is less
       than the first transition time recorded in the file.

   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-style 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,M3.5.0/1,M10.5.0" 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.

   Version 4 format
       For version-4-format TZif files, the first leap second record can have
       a correction that is neither +1 nor -1, to represent truncation of the
       TZif file at the start.  Also, if two or more leap second transitions
       are present and the last entry's correction equals the previous one,
       the last entry denotes the expiration of the leap second table instead
       of a leap second; timestamps after this expiration are unreliable in
       that future releases will likely add leap second entries after the
       expiration, and the added leap seconds will change how post-expiration
       timestamps are treated.

   Interoperability considerations
       Future changes to the format may append more data.

       Version 1 files are considered a legacy format and should not be
       generated, as they do not support transition times after the year 2038.
       Readers that understand only Version 1 must ignore any data that
       extends beyond the calculated end of the version 1 data block.

       Other than version 1, writers should generate the lowest version number
       needed by a file's data.  For example, a writer should generate a
       version 4 file only if its leap second table either expires or is
       truncated at the start.  Likewise, a writer not generating a version 4
       file should generate a version 3 file only if TZ string extensions are
       necessary to accurately model transition times.

       The sequence of time changes defined by the version 1 header and data
       block should be a contiguous sub-sequence of the time changes defined
       by the version 2+ header and data block, and by the footer.  This
       guideline helps obsolescent version 1 readers agree with current
       readers about timestamps within the contiguous sub-sequence.  It also
       lets writers not supporting obsolescent readers use a tzh_timecnt of
       zero in the version 1 data block to save space.

       When a TZif file contains a leap second table expiration time, TZif
       readers should either refuse to process post-expiration timestamps, or
       process them as if the expiration time did not exist (possibly with an
       error indication).

       Time zone designations should consist of at least three (3) and no more
       than six (6) ASCII characters from the set of alphanumerics, "-", and
       "+".  This is for compatibility with POSIX requirements for time zone
       abbreviations.

       When reading a version 2 or higher file, readers should ignore the
       version 1 header and data block except for the purpose of skipping over
       them.

       Readers should calculate the total lengths of the headers and data
       blocks and check that they all fit within the actual file size, as part
       of a validity check for the file.

       When a positive leap second occurs, readers should append an extra
       second to the local minute containing the second just before the leap
       second.  If this occurs when the UTC offset is not a multiple of 60
       seconds, the leap second occurs earlier than the last second of the
       local minute and the minute's remaining local seconds are numbered
       through 60 instead of the usual 59; the UTC offset is unaffected.

   Common interoperability issues
       This section documents common problems in reading or writing TZif
       files.  Most of these are problems in generating TZif files for use by
       older readers.  The goals of this section are:

       * to help TZif writers output files that avoid common pitfalls in older
         or buggy TZif readers,

       * to help TZif readers avoid common pitfalls when reading files
         generated by future TZif writers, and

       * to help any future specification authors see what sort of problems
         arise when the TZif format is changed.

       When new versions of the TZif format have been defined, a design goal
       has been that a reader can successfully use a TZif file even if the
       file is of a later TZif version than what the reader was designed for.
       When complete compatibility was not achieved, an attempt was made to
       limit glitches to rarely used timestamps and allow simple partial
       workarounds in writers designed to generate new-version data useful
       even for older-version readers.  This section attempts to document
       these compatibility issues and workarounds, as well as to document
       other common bugs in readers.

       Interoperability problems with TZif include the following:

       * Some readers examine only version 1 data.  As a partial workaround, a
         writer can output as much version 1 data as possible.  However, a
         reader should ignore version 1 data, and should use version 2+ data
         even if the reader's native timestamps have only 32 bits.

       * Some readers designed for version 2 might mishandle timestamps after
         a version 3 or higher file's last transition, because they cannot
         parse extensions to POSIX in the TZ-like string.  As a partial
         workaround, a writer can output more transitions than necessary, so
         that only far-future timestamps are mishandled by version 2 readers.

       * Some readers designed for version 2 do not support permanent daylight
         saving time with transitions after 24:00 - e.g., a TZ string
         "EST5EDT,0/0,J365/25" denoting permanent Eastern Daylight Time (-04).
         As a workaround, a writer can substitute standard time for two time
         zones east, e.g., "XXX3EDT4,0/0,J365/23" for a time zone with a
         never-used standard time (XXX, -03) and negative daylight saving time
         (EDT, -04) all year.  Alternatively, as a partial workaround a writer
         can substitute standard time for the next time zone east - e.g.,
         "AST4" for permanent Atlantic Standard Time (-04).

       * Some readers designed for version 2 or 3, and that require strict
         conformance to RFC 8536, reject version 4 files whose leap second
         tables are truncated at the start or that end in expiration times.

       * Some readers ignore the footer, and instead predict future timestamps
         from the time type of the last transition.  As a partial workaround,
         a writer can output more transitions than necessary.

       * Some readers do not use time type 0 for timestamps before the first
         transition, in that they infer a time type using a heuristic that
         does not always select time type 0.  As a partial workaround, a
         writer can output a dummy (no-op) first transition at an early time.

       * Some readers mishandle timestamps before the first transition that
         has a timestamp not less than -2**31.  Readers that support only
         32-bit timestamps are likely to be more prone to this problem, for
         example, when they process 64-bit transitions only some of which are
         representable in 32 bits.  As a partial workaround, a writer can
         output a dummy transition at timestamp -2**31.

       * Some readers mishandle a transition if its timestamp has the minimum
         possible signed 64-bit value.  Timestamps less than -2**59 are not
         recommended.

       * Some readers mishandle POSIX-style TZ strings that contain "<" or
         ">".  As a partial workaround, a writer can avoid using "<" or ">"
         for time zone abbreviations containing only alphabetic characters.

       * Many readers mishandle time zone abbreviations that contain non-ASCII
         characters.  These characters are not recommended.

       * Some readers may mishandle time zone abbreviations that contain fewer
         than 3 or more than 6 characters, or that contain ASCII characters
         other than alphanumerics, "-", and "+".  These abbreviations are not
         recommended.

       * Some readers mishandle TZif files that specify daylight-saving time
         UT offsets that are less than the UT offsets for the corresponding
         standard time.  These readers do not support locations like Ireland,
         which uses the equivalent of the POSIX TZ string
         "IST-1GMT0,M10.5.0,M3.5.0/1", observing standard time (IST, +01) in
         summer and daylight saving time (GMT, +00) in winter.  As a partial
         workaround, a writer can output data for the equivalent of the POSIX
         TZ string "GMT0IST,M3.5.0/1,M10.5.0", thus swapping standard and
         daylight saving time.  Although this workaround misidentifies which
         part of the year uses daylight saving time, it records UT offsets and
         time zone abbreviations correctly.

       * Some readers generate ambiguous timestamps for positive leap seconds
         that occur when the UTC offset is not a multiple of 60 seconds.  For
         example, in a timezone with UTC offset +01:23:45 and with a positive
         leap second 78796801 (1972-06-30 23:59:60 UTC), some readers will map
         both 78796800 and 78796801 to 01:23:45 local time the next day
         instead of mapping the latter to 01:23:46, and they will map 78796815
         to 01:23:59 instead of to 01:23:60.  This has not yet been a
         practical problem, since no civil authority has observed such UTC
         offsets since leap seconds were introduced in 1972.

       Some interoperability problems are reader bugs that are listed here
       mostly as warnings to developers of readers.

       * Some readers do not support negative timestamps.  Developers of
         distributed applications should keep this in mind if they need to
         deal with pre-1970 data.

       * Some readers mishandle timestamps before the first transition that
         has a nonnegative timestamp.  Readers that do not support negative
         timestamps are likely to be more prone to this problem.

       * Some readers mishandle time zone abbreviations like "-08" that
         contain "+", "-", or digits.

       * Some readers mishandle UT offsets that are out of the traditional
         range of -12 through +12 hours, and so do not support locations like
         Kiritimati that are outside this range.

       * Some readers mishandle UT offsets in the range [-3599, -1] seconds
         from UT, because they integer-divide the offset by 3600 to get 0 and
         then display the hour part as "+00".

       * Some readers mishandle UT offsets that are not a multiple of one
         hour, or of 15 minutes, or of 1 minute.

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

       Olson A, Eggert P, Murchison K. The Time Zone Information Format
       (TZif).  2019 Feb.  Internet RFC 8536 <https://datatracker.ietf.org/
       doc/html/rfc8536> doi:10.17487/RFC8536 <https://doi.org/10.17487/
       RFC8536>.

Time Zone Database                                                   tzfile(5)