1097 lines
42 KiB
HTML
1097 lines
42 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE html>
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<html lang="en">
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<head>
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<title>Theory and pragmatics of the tz code and data</title>
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<meta charset="UTF-8">
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</head>
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<!-- The somewhat-unusal indenting style in this file is intended to
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shrink the output of the shell command 'diff Theory Theory.html',
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where 'Theory' was the plain text file that this file is derived
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from. The 'Theory' file used leading white space to indent, and
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when possible that indentation is preserved here. Eventually we
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may stop doing this and remove this comment. -->
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<body>
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<h1>Theory and pragmatics of the tz code and data</h1>
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<h3>Outline</h3>
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<nav>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="#scope">Scope of the tz database</a></li>
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<li><a href="#naming">Names of time zone rules</a></li>
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<li><a href="#abbreviations">Time zone abbreviations</a></li>
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<li><a href="#accuracy">Accuracy of the tz database</a></li>
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<li><a href="#functions">Time and date functions</a></li>
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<li><a href="#stability">Interface stability</a></li>
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<li><a href="#calendar">Calendrical issues</a></li>
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<li><a href="#planets">Time and time zones on other planets</a></li>
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</ul>
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</nav>
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<section>
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<h2 id="scope">Scope of the tz database</h2>
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<p>
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The tz database attempts to record the history and predicted future of
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all computer-based clocks that track civil time. To represent this
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data, the world is partitioned into regions whose clocks all agree
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about timestamps that occur after the somewhat-arbitrary cutoff point
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of the POSIX Epoch (1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC). For each such region,
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the database records all known clock transitions, and labels the region
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with a notable location. Although 1970 is a somewhat-arbitrary
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cutoff, there are significant challenges to moving the cutoff earlier
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even by a decade or two, due to the wide variety of local practices
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before computer timekeeping became prevalent.
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</p>
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<p>
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Clock transitions before 1970 are recorded for each such location,
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because most systems support timestamps before 1970 and could
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misbehave if data entries were omitted for pre-1970 transitions.
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However, the database is not designed for and does not suffice for
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applications requiring accurate handling of all past times everywhere,
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as it would take far too much effort and guesswork to record all
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details of pre-1970 civil timekeeping.
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Athough some information outside the scope of the database is
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collected in a file <code>backzone</code> that is distributed along
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with the database proper, this file is less reliable and does not
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necessarily follow database guidelines.
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</p>
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<p>
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As described below, reference source code for using the tz database is
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also available. The tz code is upwards compatible with POSIX, an
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international standard for UNIX-like systems. As of this writing, the
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current edition of POSIX is:
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<a href="http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/">
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The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7</a>,
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IEEE Std 1003.1-2008, 2016 Edition.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2 id="naming">Names of time zone rules</h2>
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<p>
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Each of the database's time zone rules has a unique name.
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Inexperienced users are not expected to select these names unaided.
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Distributors should provide documentation and/or a simple selection
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interface that explains the names; for one example, see the 'tzselect'
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program in the tz code. The
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<a href="http://cldr.unicode.org/">Unicode Common Locale Data
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Repository</a> contains data that may be useful for other
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selection interfaces.
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</p>
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<p>
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The time zone rule naming conventions attempt to strike a balance
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among the following goals:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Uniquely identify every region where clocks have agreed since 1970.
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This is essential for the intended use: static clocks keeping local
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civil time.
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</li>
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<li>
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Indicate to experts where that region is.
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</li>
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<li>
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Be robust in the presence of political changes. For example, names
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of countries are ordinarily not used, to avoid incompatibilities
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when countries change their name (e.g. Zaire→Congo) or when
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locations change countries (e.g. Hong Kong from UK colony to
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China).
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</li>
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<li>
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Be portable to a wide variety of implementations.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use a consistent naming conventions over the entire world.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Names normally have the
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form <var>AREA</var><code>/</code><var>LOCATION</var>,
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where <var>AREA</var> is the name of a continent or ocean,
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and <var>LOCATION</var> is the name of a specific
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location within that region. North and South America share the same
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area, '<code>America</code>'. Typical names are
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'<code>Africa/Cairo</code>', '<code>America/New_York</code>', and
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'<code>Pacific/Honolulu</code>'.
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</p>
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<p>
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Here are the general rules used for choosing location names,
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in decreasing order of importance:
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</p>
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<ul>
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<li>
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Use only valid POSIX file name components (i.e., the parts of
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names other than '<code>/</code>'). Do not use the file name
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components '<code>.</code>' and '<code>..</code>'.
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Within a file name component,
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use only ASCII letters, '<code>.</code>',
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'<code>-</code>' and '<code>_</code>'. Do not use
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digits, as that might create an ambiguity with POSIX
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TZ strings. A file name component must not exceed 14
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characters or start with '<code>-</code>'. E.g.,
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prefer '<code>Brunei</code>' to
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'<code>Bandar_Seri_Begawan</code>'. Exceptions: see
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the discussion
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of legacy names below.
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</li>
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<li>
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A name must not be empty, or contain '<code>//</code>', or
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start or end with '<code>/</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Do not use names that differ only in case. Although the reference
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implementation is case-sensitive, some other implementations
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are not, and they would mishandle names differing only in case.
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</li>
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<li>
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If one name <var>A</var> is an initial prefix of another
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name <var>AB</var> (ignoring case), then <var>B</var>
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must not start with '<code>/</code>', as a
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regular file cannot have
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the same name as a directory in POSIX. For example,
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'<code>America/New_York</code>' precludes
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'<code>America/New_York/Bronx</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Uninhabited regions like the North Pole and Bouvet Island
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do not need locations, since local time is not defined there.
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</li>
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<li>
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There should typically be at least one name for each ISO 3166-1
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officially assigned two-letter code for an inhabited country
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or territory.
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</li>
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<li>
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If all the clocks in a region have agreed since 1970,
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don't bother to include more than one location
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even if subregions' clocks disagreed before 1970.
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Otherwise these tables would become annoyingly large.
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</li>
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<li>
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If a name is ambiguous, use a less ambiguous alternative;
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e.g. many cities are named San José and Georgetown, so
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prefer '<code>Costa_Rica</code>' to '<code>San_Jose</code>' and '<code>Guyana</code>' to '<code>Georgetown</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Keep locations compact. Use cities or small islands, not countries
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or regions, so that any future time zone changes do not split
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locations into different time zones. E.g. prefer
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'<code>Paris</code>' to '<code>France</code>', since
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France has had multiple time zones.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use mainstream English spelling, e.g. prefer
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'<code>Rome</code>' to '<code>Roma</code>', and prefer
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'<code>Athens</code>' to the Greek
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'<code>Αθήνα</code>' or the Romanized
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'<code>Athína</code>'.
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The POSIX file name restrictions encourage this rule.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use the most populous among locations in a zone,
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e.g. prefer '<code>Shanghai</code>' to
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'<code>Beijing</code>'. Among locations with
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similar populations, pick the best-known location,
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e.g. prefer '<code>Rome</code>' to '<code>Milan</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use the singular form, e.g. prefer '<code>Canary</code>' to '<code>Canaries</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Omit common suffixes like '<code>_Islands</code>' and
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'<code>_City</code>', unless that would lead to
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ambiguity. E.g. prefer '<code>Cayman</code>' to
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'<code>Cayman_Islands</code>' and
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'<code>Guatemala</code>' to
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'<code>Guatemala_City</code>', but prefer
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'<code>Mexico_City</code>' to '<code>Mexico</code>'
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because the country
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of Mexico has several time zones.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use '<code>_</code>' to represent a space.
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</li>
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<li>
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Omit '<code>.</code>' from abbreviations in names, e.g. prefer
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'<code>St_Helena</code>' to '<code>St._Helena</code>'.
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</li>
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<li>
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Do not change established names if they only marginally
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violate the above rules. For example, don't change
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the existing name '<code>Rome</code>' to
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'<code>Milan</code>' merely because
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Milan's population has grown to be somewhat greater
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than Rome's.
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</li>
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<li>
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If a name is changed, put its old spelling in the
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'<code>backward</code>' file.
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This means old spellings will continue to work.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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The file '<code>zone1970.tab</code>' lists geographical locations used
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to name time
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zone rules. It is intended to be an exhaustive list of names for
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geographic regions as described above; this is a subset of the names
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in the data. Although a '<code>zone1970.tab</code>' location's longitude
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corresponds to its LMT offset with one hour for every 15° east
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longitude, this relationship is not exact.
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</p>
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<p>
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Older versions of this package used a different naming scheme,
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and these older names are still supported.
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See the file '<code>backward</code>' for most of these older names
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(e.g., '<code>US/Eastern</code>' instead of '<code>America/New_York</code>').
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The other old-fashioned names still supported are
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'<code>WET</code>', '<code>CET</code>', '<code>MET</code>', and '<code>EET</code>' (see the file '<code>europe</code>').
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</p>
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<p>
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Older versions of this package defined legacy names that are
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incompatible with the first rule of location names, but which are
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still supported. These legacy names are mostly defined in the file
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'<code>etcetera</code>'. Also, the file '<code>backward</code>' defines the legacy names
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'<code>GMT0</code>', '<code>GMT-0</code>' and '<code>GMT+0</code>', and the file '<code>northamerica</code>' defines the
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legacy names '<code>EST5EDT</code>', '<code>CST6CDT</code>', '<code>MST7MDT</code>', and '<code>PST8PDT</code>'.
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</p>
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<p>
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Excluding '<code>backward</code>' should not affect the other data. If
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'<code>backward</code>' is excluded, excluding '<code>etcetera</code>' should not affect the
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remaining data.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2 id="abbreviations">Time zone abbreviations</h2>
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<p>
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When this package is installed, it generates time zone abbreviations
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like '<code>EST</code>' to be compatible with human tradition and POSIX.
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Here are the general rules used for choosing time zone abbreviations,
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in decreasing order of importance:
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<ul>
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<li>
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Use three to six characters that are ASCII alphanumerics or
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'<code>+</code>' or '<code>-</code>'.
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Previous editions of this database also used characters like
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'<code> </code>' and '<code>?</code>', but these
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characters have a special meaning to
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the shell and cause commands like
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'<code>set `date`</code>'
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to have unexpected effects.
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Previous editions of this rule required upper-case letters,
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but the Congressman who introduced Chamorro Standard Time
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preferred "ChST", so lower-case letters are now allowed.
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Also, POSIX from 2001 on relaxed the rule to allow
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'<code>-</code>', '<code>+</code>',
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and alphanumeric characters from the portable character set
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in the current locale. In practice ASCII alphanumerics and
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'<code>+</code>' and '<code>-</code>' are safe in all locales.
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In other words, in the C locale the POSIX extended regular
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expression <code>[-+[:alnum:]]{3,6}</code> should match
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the abbreviation.
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This guarantees that all abbreviations could have been
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specified by a POSIX TZ string.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use abbreviations that are in common use among English-speakers,
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e.g. 'EST' for Eastern Standard Time in North America.
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We assume that applications translate them to other languages
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as part of the normal localization process; for example,
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a French application might translate 'EST' to 'HNE'.
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<p><small>These abbreviations (for standard/daylight/etc. time) are:
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ACST/ACDT Australian Central,
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AST/ADT/APT/AWT/ADDT Atlantic,
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AEST/AEDT Australian Eastern,
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AHST/AHDT Alaska-Hawaii,
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AKST/AKDT Alaska,
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AWST/AWDT Australian Western,
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BST/BDT Bering,
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CAT/CAST Central Africa,
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CET/CEST/CEMT Central European,
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ChST Chamorro,
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CST/CDT/CWT/CPT/CDDT Central [North America],
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CST/CDT China,
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GMT/BST/IST/BDST Greenwich,
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EAT East Africa,
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EST/EDT/EWT/EPT/EDDT Eastern [North America],
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EET/EEST Eastern European,
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GST Guam,
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HST/HDT Hawaii,
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HKT/HKST Hong Kong,
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IST India,
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IST/GMT Irish,
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IST/IDT/IDDT Israel,
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JST/JDT Japan,
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KST/KDT Korea,
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MET/MEST Middle European (a backward-compatibility alias for Central European),
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MSK/MSD Moscow,
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MST/MDT/MWT/MPT/MDDT Mountain,
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NST/NDT/NWT/NPT/NDDT Newfoundland,
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NST/NDT/NWT/NPT Nome,
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NZMT/NZST New Zealand through 1945,
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NZST/NZDT New Zealand 1946–present,
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PKT/PKST Pakistan,
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PST/PDT/PWT/PPT/PDDT Pacific,
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SAST South Africa,
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SST Samoa,
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WAT/WAST West Africa,
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WET/WEST/WEMT Western European,
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WIB Waktu Indonesia Barat,
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WIT Waktu Indonesia Timur,
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WITA Waktu Indonesia Tengah,
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YST/YDT/YWT/YPT/YDDT Yukon</small>.</p>
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</li>
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<li>
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For zones whose times are taken from a city's longitude, use the
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traditional <var>x</var>MT notation. The only abbreviation like this
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in current use is 'GMT'. The others are for timestamps before 1960,
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except that Monrovia Mean Time persisted until 1972. Typically,
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numeric abbreviations (e.g., '<code>-</code>004430' for MMT) would
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cause trouble here, as the numeric strings would exceed the POSIX length limit.
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<p><small>These abbreviations are:
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AMT Amsterdam, Asunción, Athens;
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BMT Baghdad, Bangkok, Batavia, Bern, Bogotá, Bridgetown, Brussels, Bucharest;
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CMT Calamarca, Caracas, Chisinau, Colón, Copenhagen, Córdoba;
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DMT Dublin/Dunsink;
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EMT Easter;
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FFMT Fort-de-France;
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FMT Funchal;
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GMT Greenwich;
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HMT Havana, Helsinki, Horta, Howrah;
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IMT Irkutsk, Istanbul;
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JMT Jerusalem;
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KMT Kaunas, Kiev, Kingston;
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LMT Lima, Lisbon, local, Luanda;
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MMT Macassar, Madras, Malé, Managua, Minsk, Monrovia, Montevideo, Moratuwa,
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Moscow;
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PLMT Phù Liễn;
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PMT Paramaribo, Paris, Perm, Pontianak, Prague;
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PMMT Port Moresby;
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QMT Quito;
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RMT Rangoon, Riga, Rome;
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SDMT Santo Domingo;
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SJMT San José;
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SMT Santiago, Simferopol, Singapore, Stanley;
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TBMT Tbilisi;
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TMT Tallinn, Tehran;
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WMT Warsaw</small>.</p>
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<p><small>A few abbreviations also follow the pattern that
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GMT/BST established for time in the UK. They are:
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CMT/BST for Calamarca Mean Time and Bolivian Summer Time
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1890–1932, DMT/IST for Dublin/Dunsink Mean Time and Irish Summer Time
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1880–1916, MMT/MST/MDST for Moscow 1880–1919, and RMT/LST
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for Riga Mean Time and Latvian Summer time 1880–1926.
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An extra-special case is SET for Swedish Time (<em>svensk
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normaltid</em>) 1879–1899, 3° west of the Stockholm
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Observatory.</small></p>
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</li>
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<li>
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Use 'LMT' for local mean time of locations before the introduction
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of standard time; see "<a href="#scope">Scope of the
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tz database</a>".
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</li>
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<li>
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If there is no common English abbreviation, use numeric offsets like
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<code>-</code>05 and <code>+</code>0830 that are
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generated by zic's <code>%z</code> notation.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use current abbreviations for older timestamps to avoid confusion.
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For example, in 1910 a common English abbreviation for UT +01
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in central Europe was 'MEZ' (short for both "Middle European
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Zone" and for "Mitteleuropäische Zeit" in German). Nowadays
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'CET' ("Central European Time") is more common in English, and
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the database uses 'CET' even for circa-1910 timestamps as this
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is less confusing for modern users and avoids the need for
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determining when 'CET' supplanted 'MEZ' in common usage.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use a consistent style in a zone's history. For example, if a zone's
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history tends to use numeric abbreviations and a particular
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entry could go either way, use a numeric abbreviation.
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</li>
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<li>
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Use UT (with time zone abbreviation '<code>-</code>00') for
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locations while uninhabited. The leading
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'<code>-</code>' is a flag that the time
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zone is in some sense undefined; this notation is
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derived from Internet RFC 3339.
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</li>
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</ul>
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<p>
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Application writers should note that these abbreviations are ambiguous
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in practice: e.g., 'CST' means one thing in China and something else
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in North America, and 'IST' can refer to time in India, Ireland or
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Israel. To avoid ambiguity, use numeric UT offsets like
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'<code>-</code>0600' instead of time zone abbreviations like 'CST'.
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</p>
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</section>
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<section>
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<h2 id="accuracy">Accuracy of the tz database</h2>
|
|
<p>
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The tz database is not authoritative, and it surely has errors.
|
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Corrections are welcome and encouraged; see the file <code>CONTRIBUTING</code>.
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Users requiring authoritative data should consult national standards
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|
bodies and the references cited in the database's comments.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Errors in the tz database arise from many sources:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database predicts future timestamps, and current predictions
|
|
will be incorrect after future governments change the rules.
|
|
For example, if today someone schedules a meeting for 13:00 next
|
|
October 1, Casablanca time, and tomorrow Morocco changes its
|
|
daylight saving rules, software can mess up after the rule change
|
|
if it blithely relies on conversions made before the change.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The pre-1970 entries in this database cover only a tiny sliver of how
|
|
clocks actually behaved; the vast majority of the necessary
|
|
information was lost or never recorded. Thousands more zones would
|
|
be needed if the tz database's scope were extended to cover even
|
|
just the known or guessed history of standard time; for example,
|
|
the current single entry for France would need to split into dozens
|
|
of entries, perhaps hundreds. And in most of the world even this
|
|
approach would be misleading due to widespread disagreement or
|
|
indifference about what times should be observed. In her 2015 book
|
|
<cite>The Global Transformation of Time, 1870-1950</cite>, Vanessa Ogle writes
|
|
"Outside of Europe and North America there was no system of time
|
|
zones at all, often not even a stable landscape of mean times,
|
|
prior to the middle decades of the twentieth century". See:
|
|
Timothy Shenk, <a
|
|
href="https://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/booked-a-global-history-of-time-vanessa-ogle">Booked:
|
|
A Global History of Time</a>. <cite>Dissent</cite> 2015-12-17.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Most of the pre-1970 data entries come from unreliable sources, often
|
|
astrology books that lack citations and whose compilers evidently
|
|
invented entries when the true facts were unknown, without
|
|
reporting which entries were known and which were invented.
|
|
These books often contradict each other or give implausible entries,
|
|
and on the rare occasions when they are checked they are
|
|
typically found to be incorrect.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
For the UK the tz database relies on years of first-class work done by
|
|
Joseph Myers and others; see
|
|
"<a href="https://www.polyomino.org.uk/british-time/">History of
|
|
legal time in Britain</a>".
|
|
Other countries are not done nearly as well.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Sometimes, different people in the same city would maintain clocks
|
|
that differed significantly. Railway time was used by railroad
|
|
companies (which did not always agree with each other),
|
|
church-clock time was used for birth certificates, etc.
|
|
Often this was merely common practice, but sometimes it was set by law.
|
|
For example, from 1891 to 1911 the UT offset in France was legally
|
|
0:09:21 outside train stations and 0:04:21 inside.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Although a named location in the tz database stands for the
|
|
containing region, its pre-1970 data entries are often accurate for
|
|
only a small subset of that region. For example, <code>Europe/London</code>
|
|
stands for the United Kingdom, but its pre-1847 times are valid
|
|
only for locations that have London's exact meridian, and its 1847
|
|
transition to GMT is known to be valid only for the L&NW and the
|
|
Caledonian railways.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a zone's
|
|
data entries are thereafter valid for every location in the region.
|
|
For example, <code>Europe/London</code> is valid for all locations in its
|
|
region after GMT was made the standard time, but the date of
|
|
standardization (1880-08-02) is not in the tz database, other than
|
|
in commentary. For many zones the earliest time of validity is
|
|
unknown.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database does not record a region's boundaries, and in many
|
|
cases the boundaries are not known. For example, the zone
|
|
<code>America/Kentucky/Louisville</code> represents a region around
|
|
the city of
|
|
Louisville, the boundaries of which are unclear.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Changes that are modeled as instantaneous transitions in the tz
|
|
database were often spread out over hours, days, or even decades.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Even if the time is specified by law, locations sometimes
|
|
deliberately flout the law.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Early timekeeping practices, even assuming perfect clocks, were
|
|
often not specified to the accuracy that the tz database requires.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Sometimes historical timekeeping was specified more precisely
|
|
than what the tz database can handle. For example, from 1909 to
|
|
1937 Netherlands clocks were legally UT +00:19:32.13, but the tz
|
|
database cannot represent the fractional second.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Even when all the timestamp transitions recorded by the tz database
|
|
are correct, the tz rules that generate them may not faithfully
|
|
reflect the historical rules. For example, from 1922 until World
|
|
War II the UK moved clocks forward the day following the third
|
|
Saturday in April unless that was Easter, in which case it moved
|
|
clocks forward the previous Sunday. Because the tz database has no
|
|
way to specify Easter, these exceptional years are entered as
|
|
separate tz Rule lines, even though the legal rules did not change.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database models pre-standard time using the proleptic Gregorian
|
|
calendar and local mean time (LMT), but many people used other
|
|
calendars and other timescales. For example, the Roman Empire used
|
|
the Julian calendar, and had 12 varying-length daytime hours with a
|
|
non-hour-based system at night.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Early clocks were less reliable, and data entries do not represent
|
|
clock error.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database assumes Universal Time (UT) as an origin, even
|
|
though UT is not standardized for older timestamps. In the tz
|
|
database commentary, UT denotes a family of time standards that
|
|
includes Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) along with other variants
|
|
such as UT1 and GMT, with days starting at midnight. Although UT
|
|
equals UTC for modern timestamps, UTC was not defined until 1960,
|
|
so commentary uses the more-general abbreviation UT for timestamps
|
|
that might predate 1960. Since UT, UT1, etc. disagree slightly,
|
|
and since pre-1972 UTC seconds varied in length, interpretation of
|
|
older timestamps can be problematic when subsecond accuracy is
|
|
needed.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Civil time was not based on atomic time before 1972, and we don't
|
|
know the history of earth's rotation accurately enough to map SI
|
|
seconds to historical solar time to more than about one-hour
|
|
accuracy. See: Stephenson FR, Morrison LV, Hohenkerk CY.
|
|
<a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2016.0404">Measurement
|
|
of the Earth's rotation: 720 BC to AD 2015</a>.
|
|
<cite>Proc Royal Soc A</cite>. 2016 Dec 7;472:20160404.
|
|
Also see: Espenak F. <a
|
|
href="https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEhelp/uncertainty2004.html">Uncertainty
|
|
in Delta T (ΔT)</a>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The relationship between POSIX time (that is, UTC but ignoring leap
|
|
seconds) and UTC is not agreed upon after 1972. Although the POSIX
|
|
clock officially stops during an inserted leap second, at least one
|
|
proposed standard has it jumping back a second instead; and in
|
|
practice POSIX clocks more typically either progress glacially during
|
|
a leap second, or are slightly slowed while near a leap second.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz database does not represent how uncertain its information is.
|
|
Ideally it would contain information about when data entries are
|
|
incomplete or dicey. Partial temporal knowledge is a field of
|
|
active research, though, and it's not clear how to apply it here.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>
|
|
In short, many, perhaps most, of the tz database's pre-1970 and future
|
|
timestamps are either wrong or misleading. Any attempt to pass the
|
|
tz database off as the definition of time should be unacceptable to
|
|
anybody who cares about the facts. In particular, the tz database's
|
|
LMT offsets should not be considered meaningful, and should not prompt
|
|
creation of zones merely because two locations differ in LMT or
|
|
transitioned to standard time at different dates.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<h2 id="functions">Time and date functions</h2>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The tz code contains time and date functions that are upwards
|
|
compatible with those of POSIX.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
POSIX has the following properties and limitations.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>
|
|
In POSIX, time display in a process is controlled by the
|
|
environment variable TZ. Unfortunately, the POSIX TZ string takes
|
|
a form that is hard to describe and is error-prone in practice.
|
|
Also, POSIX TZ strings can't deal with other (for example, Israeli)
|
|
daylight saving time rules, or situations where more than two
|
|
time zone abbreviations are used in an area.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The POSIX TZ string takes the following form:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
<var>stdoffset</var>[<var>dst</var>[<var>offset</var>][<code>,</code><var>date</var>[<code>/</code><var>time</var>]<code>,</code><var>date</var>[<code>/</code><var>time</var>]]]
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
where:
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt><var>std</var> and <var>dst</var></dt><dd>
|
|
are 3 or more characters specifying the standard
|
|
and daylight saving time (DST) zone names.
|
|
Starting with POSIX.1-2001, <var>std</var>
|
|
and <var>dst</var> may also be
|
|
in a quoted form like '<code><+09></code>'; this allows
|
|
"<code>+</code>" and "<code>-</code>" in the names.
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><var>offset</var></dt><dd>
|
|
is of the form
|
|
'<code>[±]<var>hh</var>:[<var>mm</var>[:<var>ss</var>]]</code>'
|
|
and specifies the offset west of UT. '<var>hh</var>'
|
|
may be a single digit; 0≤<var>hh</var>≤24.
|
|
The default DST offset is one hour ahead of standard time.
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><var>date</var>[<code>/</code><var>time</var>]<code>,</code><var>date</var>[<code>/</code><var>time</var>]</dt><dd>
|
|
specifies the beginning and end of DST. If this is absent,
|
|
the system supplies its own rules for DST, and these can
|
|
differ from year to year; typically US DST rules are used.
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><var>time</var></dt><dd>
|
|
takes the form
|
|
'<var>hh</var><code>:</code>[<var>mm</var>[<code>:</code><var>ss</var>]]'
|
|
and defaults to 02:00.
|
|
This is the same format as the offset, except that a
|
|
leading '<code>+</code>' or '<code>-</code>' is not allowed.
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><var>date</var></dt><dd>
|
|
takes one of the following forms:
|
|
<dl>
|
|
<dt>J<var>n</var> (1≤<var>n</var>≤365)</dt><dd>
|
|
origin-1 day number not counting February 29
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><var>n</var> (0≤<var>n</var>≤365)</dt><dd>
|
|
origin-0 day number counting February 29 if present
|
|
</dd>
|
|
<dt><code>M</code><var>m</var><code>.</code><var>n</var><code>.</code><var>d</var> (0[Sunday]≤<var>d</var>≤6[Saturday], 1≤<var>n</var>≤5, 1≤<var>m</var>≤12)</dt><dd>
|
|
for the <var>d</var>th day of
|
|
week <var>n</var> of month <var>m</var> of the
|
|
year, where week 1 is the first week in which
|
|
day <var>d</var> appears, and '<code>5</code>'
|
|
stands for the last week in which
|
|
day <var>d</var> appears
|
|
(which may be either the 4th or 5th week).
|
|
Typically, this is the only useful form;
|
|
the <var>n</var>
|
|
and <code>J</code><var>n</var> forms are
|
|
rarely used.
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
</dd>
|
|
</dl>
|
|
Here is an example POSIX TZ string for New Zealand after 2007.
|
|
It says that standard time (NZST) is 12 hours ahead of UT,
|
|
and that daylight saving time (NZDT) is observed from September's
|
|
last Sunday at 02:00 until April's first Sunday at 03:00:
|
|
|
|
<pre><code>TZ='NZST-12NZDT,M9.5.0,M4.1.0/3'</code></pre>
|
|
|
|
This POSIX TZ string is hard to remember, and mishandles some
|
|
timestamps before 2008. With this package you can use this
|
|
instead:
|
|
|
|
<pre><code>TZ='Pacific/Auckland'</code></pre>
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
POSIX does not define the exact meaning of TZ values like
|
|
"<code>EST5EDT</code>".
|
|
Typically the current US DST rules are used to interpret such values,
|
|
but this means that the US DST rules are compiled into each program
|
|
that does time conversion. This means that when US time conversion
|
|
rules change (as in the United States in 1987), all programs that
|
|
do time conversion must be recompiled to ensure proper results.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The TZ environment variable is process-global, which makes it hard
|
|
to write efficient, thread-safe applications that need access
|
|
to multiple time zones.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
In POSIX, there's no tamper-proof way for a process to learn the
|
|
system's best idea of local wall clock. (This is important for
|
|
applications that an administrator wants used only at certain
|
|
times –
|
|
without regard to whether the user has fiddled the TZ environment
|
|
variable. While an administrator can "do everything in UT" to get
|
|
around the problem, doing so is inconvenient and precludes handling
|
|
daylight saving time shifts - as might be required to limit phone
|
|
calls to off-peak hours.)
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
POSIX provides no convenient and efficient way to determine the UT
|
|
offset and time zone abbreviation of arbitrary timestamps,
|
|
particularly for time zone settings that do not fit into the
|
|
POSIX model.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
POSIX requires that systems ignore leap seconds.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The tz code attempts to support all the <code>time_t</code>
|
|
implementations allowed by POSIX. The <code>time_t</code>
|
|
type represents a nonnegative count of
|
|
seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC, ignoring leap seconds.
|
|
In practice, <code>time_t</code> is usually a signed 64- or
|
|
32-bit integer; 32-bit signed <code>time_t</code> values stop
|
|
working after 2038-01-19 03:14:07 UTC, so
|
|
new implementations these days typically use a signed 64-bit integer.
|
|
Unsigned 32-bit integers are used on one or two platforms,
|
|
and 36-bit and 40-bit integers are also used occasionally.
|
|
Although earlier POSIX versions allowed <code>time_t</code> to be a
|
|
floating-point type, this was not supported by any practical
|
|
systems, and POSIX.1-2013 and the tz code both
|
|
require <code>time_t</code>
|
|
to be an integer type.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>
|
|
These are the extensions that have been made to the POSIX functions:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The TZ environment variable is used in generating the name of a file
|
|
from which time zone information is read (or is interpreted a la
|
|
POSIX); TZ is no longer constrained to be a three-letter time zone
|
|
name followed by a number of hours and an optional three-letter
|
|
daylight time zone name. The daylight saving time rules to be used
|
|
for a particular time zone are encoded in the time zone file;
|
|
the format of the file allows U.S., Australian, and other rules to be
|
|
encoded, and allows for situations where more than two time zone
|
|
abbreviations are used.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
It was recognized that allowing the TZ environment variable to
|
|
take on values such as '<code>America/New_York</code>' might
|
|
cause "old" programs
|
|
(that expect TZ to have a certain form) to operate incorrectly;
|
|
consideration was given to using some other environment variable
|
|
(for example, TIMEZONE) to hold the string used to generate the
|
|
time zone information file name. In the end, however, it was decided
|
|
to continue using TZ: it is widely used for time zone purposes;
|
|
separately maintaining both TZ and TIMEZONE seemed a nuisance;
|
|
and systems where "new" forms of TZ might cause problems can simply
|
|
use TZ values such as "<code>EST5EDT</code>" which can be used both by
|
|
"new" programs (a la POSIX) and "old" programs (as zone names and
|
|
offsets).
|
|
</p>
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The code supports platforms with a UT offset member
|
|
in <code>struct tm</code>,
|
|
e.g., <code>tm_gmtoff</code>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The code supports platforms with a time zone abbreviation member in
|
|
<code>struct tm</code>, e.g., <code>tm_zone</code>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Since the TZ environment variable can now be used to control time
|
|
conversion, the <code>daylight</code>
|
|
and <code>timezone</code> variables are no longer needed.
|
|
(These variables are defined and set by <code>tzset</code>;
|
|
however, their values will not be used
|
|
by <code>localtime</code>.)
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Functions <code>tzalloc</code>, <code>tzfree</code>,
|
|
<code>localtime_rz</code>, and <code>mktime_z</code> for
|
|
more-efficient thread-safe applications that need to use
|
|
multiple time zones. The <code>tzalloc</code>
|
|
and <code>tzfree</code> functions allocate and free objects of
|
|
type <code>timezone_t</code>, and <code>localtime_rz</code>
|
|
and <code>mktime_z</code> are like <code>localtime_r</code>
|
|
and <code>mktime</code> with an extra
|
|
<code>timezone_t</code> argument. The functions were inspired
|
|
by NetBSD.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
A function <code>tzsetwall</code> has been added to arrange
|
|
for the system's
|
|
best approximation to local wall clock time to be delivered by
|
|
subsequent calls to <code>localtime</code>. Source code for portable
|
|
applications that "must" run on local wall clock time should call
|
|
<code>tzsetwall</code>; if such code is moved to "old" systems that don't
|
|
provide tzsetwall, you won't be able to generate an executable program.
|
|
(These time zone functions also arrange for local wall clock time to be
|
|
used if tzset is called – directly or indirectly –
|
|
and there's no TZ
|
|
environment variable; portable applications should not, however, rely
|
|
on this behavior since it's not the way SVR2 systems behave.)
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Negative <code>time_t</code> values are supported, on systems
|
|
where <code>time_t</code> is signed.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
These functions can account for leap seconds, thanks to Bradley White.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Points of interest to folks with other systems:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Code compatible with this package is already part of many platforms,
|
|
including GNU/Linux, Android, the BSDs, Chromium OS, Cygwin, AIX, iOS,
|
|
BlackBery 10, macOS, Microsoft Windows, OpenVMS, and Solaris.
|
|
On such hosts, the primary use of this package
|
|
is to update obsolete time zone rule tables.
|
|
To do this, you may need to compile the time zone compiler
|
|
'<code>zic</code>' supplied with this package instead of using
|
|
the system '<code>zic</code>', since the format
|
|
of <code>zic</code>'s input is occasionally extended, and a
|
|
platform may still be shipping an older <code>zic</code>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The UNIX Version 7 <code>timezone</code> function is not
|
|
present in this package;
|
|
it's impossible to reliably map timezone's arguments (a "minutes west
|
|
of GMT" value and a "daylight saving time in effect" flag) to a
|
|
time zone abbreviation, and we refuse to guess.
|
|
Programs that in the past used the timezone function may now examine
|
|
<code>localtime(&clock)->tm_zone</code>
|
|
(if <code>TM_ZONE</code> is defined) or
|
|
<code>tzname[localtime(&clock)->tm_isdst]</code>
|
|
(if <code>HAVE_TZNAME</code> is defined)
|
|
to learn the correct time zone abbreviation to use.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The 4.2BSD <code>gettimeofday</code> function is not used in
|
|
this package.
|
|
This formerly let users obtain the current UTC offset and DST flag,
|
|
but this functionality was removed in later versions of BSD.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
In SVR2, time conversion fails for near-minimum or near-maximum
|
|
<code>time_t</code> values when doing conversions for places
|
|
that don't use UT.
|
|
This package takes care to do these conversions correctly.
|
|
A comment in the source code tells how to get compatibly wrong
|
|
results.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The functions that are conditionally compiled
|
|
if <code>STD_INSPIRED</code> is defined
|
|
should, at this point, be looked on primarily as food for thought. They are
|
|
not in any sense "standard compatible" – some are not, in fact,
|
|
specified in <em>any</em> standard. They do, however, represent responses of
|
|
various authors to
|
|
standardization proposals.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Other time conversion proposals, in particular the one developed by folks at
|
|
Hewlett Packard, offer a wider selection of functions that provide capabilities
|
|
beyond those provided here. The absence of such functions from this package
|
|
is not meant to discourage the development, standardization, or use of such
|
|
functions. Rather, their absence reflects the decision to make this package
|
|
contain valid extensions to POSIX, to ensure its broad acceptability. If
|
|
more powerful time conversion functions can be standardized, so much the
|
|
better.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<h2 id="stability">Interface stability</h2>
|
|
<p>
|
|
The tz code and data supply the following interfaces:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
A set of zone names as per "<a href="#naming">Names of time zone
|
|
rules</a>" above.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Library functions described in "<a href="#functions">Time and date
|
|
functions</a>" above.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The programs <code>tzselect</code>, <code>zdump</code>,
|
|
and <code>zic</code>, documented in their man pages.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The format of <code>zic</code> input files, documented in
|
|
the <code>zic</code> man page.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The format of <code>zic</code> output files, documented in
|
|
the <code>tzfile</code> man page.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The format of zone table files, documented in <code>zone1970.tab</code>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The format of the country code file, documented in <code>iso3166.tab</code>.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
The version number of the code and data, as the first line of
|
|
the text file '<code>version</code>' in each release.
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Interface changes in a release attempt to preserve compatibility with
|
|
recent releases. For example, tz data files typically do not rely on
|
|
recently-added <code>zic</code> features, so that users can run
|
|
older <code>zic</code> versions to process newer data
|
|
files. <a href="tz-link.html">Sources for time zone and daylight
|
|
saving time data</a> describes how
|
|
releases are tagged and distributed.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Interfaces not listed above are less stable. For example, users
|
|
should not rely on particular UT offsets or abbreviations for
|
|
timestamps, as data entries are often based on guesswork and these
|
|
guesses may be corrected or improved.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<h2 id="calendar">Calendrical issues</h2>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Calendrical issues are a bit out of scope for a time zone database,
|
|
but they indicate the sort of problems that we would run into if we
|
|
extended the time zone database further into the past. An excellent
|
|
resource in this area is Nachum Dershowitz and Edward M. Reingold,
|
|
<cite><a href="https://www.cs.tau.ac.il/~nachum/calendar-book/third-edition/">Calendrical
|
|
Calculations: Third Edition</a></cite>, Cambridge University Press (2008).
|
|
Other information and sources are given in the file '<samp>calendars</samp>'
|
|
in the tz distribution. They sometimes disagree.
|
|
</p>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
|
|
<section>
|
|
<h2 id="planets">Time and time zones on other planets</h2>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Some people's work schedules use Mars time. Jet Propulsion Laboratory
|
|
(JPL) coordinators have kept Mars time on and off at least since 1997
|
|
for the Mars Pathfinder mission. Some of their family members have
|
|
also adapted to Mars time. Dozens of special Mars watches were built
|
|
for JPL workers who kept Mars time during the Mars Exploration
|
|
Rovers mission (2004). These timepieces look like normal Seikos and
|
|
Citizens but use Mars seconds rather than terrestrial seconds.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
A Mars solar day is called a "sol" and has a mean period equal to
|
|
about 24 hours 39 minutes 35.244 seconds in terrestrial time. It is
|
|
divided into a conventional 24-hour clock, so each Mars second equals
|
|
about 1.02749125 terrestrial seconds.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
The prime meridian of Mars goes through the center of the crater
|
|
Airy-0, named in honor of the British astronomer who built the
|
|
Greenwich telescope that defines Earth's prime meridian. Mean solar
|
|
time on the Mars prime meridian is called Mars Coordinated Time (MTC).
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Each landed mission on Mars has adopted a different reference for
|
|
solar time keeping, so there is no real standard for Mars time zones.
|
|
For example, the Mars Exploration Rover project (2004) defined two
|
|
time zones "Local Solar Time A" and "Local Solar Time B" for its two
|
|
missions, each zone designed so that its time equals local true solar
|
|
time at approximately the middle of the nominal mission. Such a "time
|
|
zone" is not particularly suited for any application other than the
|
|
mission itself.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Many calendars have been proposed for Mars, but none have achieved
|
|
wide acceptance. Astronomers often use Mars Sol Date (MSD) which is a
|
|
sequential count of Mars solar days elapsed since about 1873-12-29
|
|
12:00 GMT.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
In our solar system, Mars is the planet with time and calendar most
|
|
like Earth's. On other planets, Sun-based time and calendars would
|
|
work quite differently. For example, although Mercury's sidereal
|
|
rotation period is 58.646 Earth days, Mercury revolves around the Sun
|
|
so rapidly that an observer on Mercury's equator would see a sunrise
|
|
only every 175.97 Earth days, i.e., a Mercury year is 0.5 of a Mercury
|
|
day. Venus is more complicated, partly because its rotation is
|
|
slightly retrograde: its year is 1.92 of its days. Gas giants like
|
|
Jupiter are trickier still, as their polar and equatorial regions
|
|
rotate at different rates, so that the length of a day depends on
|
|
latitude. This effect is most pronounced on Neptune, where the day is
|
|
about 12 hours at the poles and 18 hours at the equator.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Although the tz database does not support time on other planets, it is
|
|
documented here in the hopes that support will be added eventually.
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
Sources:
|
|
</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Michael Allison and Robert Schmunk,
|
|
"<a href="https://www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/help/notes.html">Technical
|
|
Notes on Mars Solar Time as Adopted by the Mars24 Sunclock</a>"
|
|
(2015-06-30).
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Jia-Rui Chong,
|
|
"<a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jan/14/science/sci-marstime14">Workdays
|
|
Fit for a Martian</a>", Los Angeles Times
|
|
(2004-01-14), pp A1, A20-A21.
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Tom Chmielewski,
|
|
"<a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/02/jet-lag-is-worse-on-mars/386033/">Jet
|
|
Lag Is Worse on Mars</a>", The Atlantic (2015-02-26)
|
|
</li>
|
|
<li>
|
|
Matt Williams,
|
|
"<a href="https://www.universetoday.com/37481/days-of-the-planets/">How
|
|
long is a day on the other planets of the solar system?</a>"
|
|
(2017-04-27).
|
|
</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</section>
|
|
|
|
<footer>
|
|
<hr>
|
|
This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of 2009-05-17 by
|
|
Arthur David Olson.
|
|
</footer>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|