TZSET(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						  TZSET(3)

NAME

     tzset -- initialize time conversion information

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <time.h>

     void
     tzset(void);

DESCRIPTION

     The tzset() function uses the value of the environment variable TZ to set time conversion information used by localtime(3).  If TZ does not
     appear in the environment, the best available approximation to local wall clock time, as specified by the tzfile(5) format file
     /etc/localtime is used by localtime(3).  If TZ appears in the environment but its value is a null string, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is
     used (without leap second correction).  If TZ appears in the environment and its value is not a null string:

     -	 if the value begins with a colon, it is used as a pathname of a file from which to read the time conversion information;

     -	 if the value does not begin with a colon, it is first used as the pathname of a file from which to read the time conversion information,
	 and, if that file cannot be read, is used directly as a specification of the time conversion information.

     When TZ is used as a pathname, if it begins with a slash, it is used as an absolute pathname; otherwise, it is used as a pathname relative to
     /usr/share/zoneinfo.  The file must be in the format specified in tzfile(5).

     When TZ is used directly as a specification of the time conversion information, it must have the following syntax (spaces inserted for clar-
     ity):

	   stdoffset[dst[offset][,rule]]

     where:
     std and dst  Three or more bytes that are the designation for the standard (std) or summer (dst) time zone.  Only std is required; if dst is
		  missing, then summer time does not apply in this locale.  Upper- and lowercase letters are explicitly allowed.  Any characters
		  except a leading colon (:), digits, comma (,), minus (-), plus (+), and ASCII NUL are allowed.
     offset	  Indicates the value one must add to the local time to arrive at Coordinated Universal Time.  The offset has the form:

			hh[:mm[:ss]]

		  The minutes (mm) and seconds (ss) are optional.  The hour (hh) is required and may be a single digit.  The offset following std
		  is required.	If no offset follows dst, summer time is assumed to be one hour ahead of standard time.  One or more digits may be
		  used; the value is always interpreted as a decimal number.  The hour must be between zero and 24, and the minutes (and seconds)
		  -- if present -- between zero and 59.  If preceded by a ``-'' the time zone shall be east of the Prime Meridian; otherwise it
		  shall be west (which may be indicated by an optional preceding ``+'').
     rule	  Indicates when to change to and back from summer time.  The rule has the form:

			date/time,date/time

		  where the first date describes when the change from standard to summer time occurs and the second date describes when the change
		  back happens.  Each time field describes when, in current local time, the change to the other time is made.  The format of date
		  is one of the following:
		  Jn		  The Julian day n (1 <= n <= 365).  Leap days are not counted; that is, in all years -- including leap years --
				  February 28 is day 59 and March 1 is day 60.	It is impossible to explicitly refer to the occasional February
				  29.
		  n		  The zero-based Julian day (0 <= n <= 365).  Leap days are counted, and it is possible to refer to February 29.
		  Mm.n.d	  The d'th day (0 <= d <= 6) of week n of month m of the year (1 <= n <= 5, 1 <= m <= 12, where week 5 means
				  ``the last d day in month m'' which may occur in either the fourth or the fifth week).  Week 1 is the first week
				  in which the d'th day occurs.  Day zero is Sunday.
		  The time has the same format as offset except that no leading sign ``-'' or ``+'' is allowed.  The default, if time is not
		  given, is 02:00:00.
     If no rule is present in TZ, the rules specified by the tzfile(5) format file posixrules in /usr/share/zoneinfo are used, with the standard
     and summer time offsets from UTC replaced by those specified by the offset values in TZ.

     For compatibility with System V Release 3.1, a semicolon (;) may be used to separate the rule from the rest of the specification.

     If the TZ environment variable does not specify a tzfile(5) format file and cannot be interpreted as a direct specification, UTC is used.

FILES

     /etc/localtime		     local time zone file
     /usr/share/zoneinfo	     time zone information directory
     /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules  used with POSIX-style TZ's
     /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT	     for UTC leap seconds

     If /usr/share/zoneinfo/GMT is absent, UTC leap seconds are loaded from /usr/share/zoneinfo/posixrules.

SEE ALSO

     ctime(3), getenv(3), strftime(3), time(3), tzfile(5)

STANDARDS

     The tzset() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1'').

BSD
								   April 1, 2001							       BSD