zic(1M) System Administration Commands zic(1M)NAMEzic - time zone compiler
SYNOPSISzic [--version] [-s] [-v] [-l localtime] [-p posixrules]
[-d directory] [-y yearistype] [filename]...
DESCRIPTIONzic reads text from the file(s) named on the command line and creates
the time conversion information files specified in this input. If a
filename is '−', the standard input is read.
Input lines are made up of fields. Fields are separated by any number
of white space characters. Leading and trailing white space on input
lines is ignored. A pound sign (#) indicates a comment that extends to
the end of the line. White space characters and pound signs can be
enclosed within double quotes (" ") if they are to be used as part of a
field. Any line that is blank (after comment stripping) is ignored.
Non-blank lines are expected to be of one of three types: rule lines,
zone lines, or link lines.
Rule
A rule line has the form:
For example:
Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S
The fields that make up a rule line are:
Rule USA 1969 1973 - Apr lastSun 2:00 1:00 D
NAME Gives the (arbitrary) name of the set of rules this rule is
part of.
FROM Gives the first year in which the rule applies. The word
minimum (or an abbreviation) means the minimum year with a
representable time value. The word maximum (or an abbrevia‐
tion) means the maximum year with a representable time
value.
TO Gives the final year in which the rule applies. In addition
to minimum and maximum (as above), the word only (or an
abbreviation) can be used to repeat the value of the FROM
field.
TYPE Gives the type of year in which the rule applies. If TYPE
is:
'−' The rule applies in all years between FROM
and TO, inclusive.
uspres The rule applies in U.S. Presidential elec‐
tion years.
nonpres The rule applies in years other than U.S.
Presidential election years.
even The rule applies to even-numbered years.
odd The rule applies to odd-numbered years.
If TYPE is something else, then zic will attempt to execute
the command
yearistype year type
to check the type of a year: an exit status of 0 means that
the year is of the given type; an exit status of 1 means
that the year is not of the given type. The yearistype com‐
mand is not currently provided in the Solaris environment.
IN Names the month in which the rule takes effect. Month names
can be abbreviated.
ON Gives the day on which the rule takes effect. Recognized
forms include:
5 the fifth day of the month
lastSun The last Sunday in the month
lastMon The last Monday in the month
Sun>=8 First Sunday on or after the eighth
Sun<=25 Last Sunday on or before the 25th
Names of days of the week can be abbreviated or spelled out
in full. Note: There cannot be spaces within the ON field.
AT Gives the time of day at which the rule takes effect. Rec‐
ognized forms include:
2 Time in hours
2:00 Time in hours and minutes
15:00 24-hour format time (for times after noon)
1:28:14 Time in hours, minutes, and seconds, where hour
0 is midnight at the start of the day and hour
24 is midnight at the end of the day.
Any of these forms can be followed by the letter w if the
given time is local "wall clock" time; s if the given time
is local "standard" time; or u (or g or z) if the given
time is universal time. In the absence of an indicator,
wall clock time is assumed.
SAVE Gives the amount of time to be added to local standard time
when the rule is in effect. This field has the same format
as the AT field (without the w and s suffixes).
LETTER/S Gives the "variable part" (for example, the "S" or "D" in
"EST" or "EDT" of time zone abbreviations to be used when
this rule is in effect. If this field is '−', the variable
part is null.
Zone
A zone line has the form:
Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES/SAVE FORMAT [UNTIL]
For example:
Zone Australia/SouthWest 9:30 - CST 1992 Mar 15 12:00
8:30 Aus CST
The fields that make up a zone line are:
NAME The name of the time zone. This is the name used in cre‐
ating the time conversion information file for the zone.
GMTOFF The amount of time to add to UTC to get standard time in
this zone. This field has the same format as the AT and
SAVE fields of rule lines; begin the field with a minus
sign to subtract time from UTC.
RULES/SAVE The name of the rule(s) that apply in the time zone or,
alternately, an amount of time to add to local standard
time. If this field is `−', then standard time always
applies in the time zone.
FORMAT The format for time zone abbreviations in this time zone.
The pair of characters %s is used to show where the
"variable part" of the time zone abbreviation goes.
Alternately, a slash (/) separates standard and daylight
abbreviations.
UNTIL The time at which the UTC offset or the rule(s) change
for a location. It is specified as a year, a month, a
day, and a time of day. The time of day has the same for‐
mat as the AT field of rule lines. If this is specified,
the time zone information is generated from the given UTC
offset and rule change until the time specified.
The month, day, and time of day have the same format as
the IN, ON, and AT columns of a rule; trailing columns
can be omitted, and default to the earliest possible
value for the missing columns.
The next line must be a "continuation" line. This line
has the same form as a zone line except that the string
"Zone" and the name are omitted. The continuation line
places information starting at the time specified as the
UNTIL field in the previous line in the file used by the
previous line. Continuation lines can contain an UNTIL
field, just as zone lines do, indicating that the next
line is a further continuation.
Link
A link line has the form:
Link LINK-FROM LINK-TO
For example:
Link Europe/Istanbul Asia/Istanbul
The LINK-FROM field should appear as the NAME field in some zone line;
the LINK-TO field is used as an alternate name for that zone.
Except for continuation lines, lines can appear in any order in the
input.
OPTIONS--version Outputs version information and exits.
-d directory Creates time conversion information files in the
directory directory rather than in the standard direc‐
tory /usr/share/lib/zoneinfo.
-l localtime Uses the given time zone as local time localtime. zic
acts as if the file contained a link line of the form:
Link localtime localtime
-p posixrules Uses the rules of the given time zone posixrules when
handling POSIX-format time zone environment variables.
zic acts as if the input contained a link line of the
form:
Link posixrules posixrules
This option is not used by ctime(3C) and mktime(3C) in
the Solaris environment.
-s Limits time values stored in output files to values
that are the same whether they are taken to be signed
or unsigned. You can use this option to generate SVVS-
compatible files.
This option is obsolete and may be removed in a future
release.
-v Complains if a year that appears in a data file is
outside the range of years representable by system
time values (0:00:00 a.m. UTC, January 1, 1970, to
3:14:07 a.m. UTC, January 19, 2038). This option also
complains if a time of 24:00 (which cannot be han‐
dled by pre-1998 versions of zic) appears in the
input.
-y yearistype Uses the given command yearistype rather than
yearistype when checking year types (see Rules under
DESCRIPTION).
OPERANDS
filename A file containing input lines that specify the time conver‐
sion information files to be created. If a filename is '−',
the standard input is read.
FILES
/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo
Standard directory used for created files
/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo/src
Directory containing source files
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Availability │SUNWcsu │
├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │Committed* │
└─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
* The -s option is obsolete.
SEE ALSOtime(1), zdump(1M), ctime(3C), mktime(3C), attributes(5)NOTES
For areas with more than two types of local time, you might need to use
local standard time in the AT field of the earliest transition time's
rule to ensure that the earliest transition time recorded in the com‐
piled file is correct.
If the current timezone file is edited and compiled using the "zic"
command, the changes will only be reflected in any new processes that
are running. The most accurate way to reflect the changes for the
whole system would be a reboot.
SunOS 5.10 3 Jan 2006 zic(1M)
