1 ZDUMP(8) System Manager's Manual ZDUMP(8)
4 zdump - time zone dumper
7 zdump [ option ... ] [ zonename ... ]
10 Zdump prints the current time in each zonename named on the command
13 These options are available:
16 Output version information and exit.
18 -i (This option is experimental: its behavior may change in future
19 versions.) Output a description of time intervals. For each
20 zonename on the command line, output an interval-format
21 description of the zone. See "INTERVAL FORMAT" below.
23 -v Output a verbose description of time intervals. For each
24 zonename on the command line, print the time at the lowest
25 possible time value, the time one day after the lowest possible
26 time value, the times both one second before and exactly at each
27 detected time discontinuity, the time at one day less than the
28 highest possible time value, and the time at the highest
29 possible time value. Each line is followed by isdst=D where D
30 is positive, zero, or negative depending on whether the given
31 time is daylight saving time, standard time, or an unknown time
32 type, respectively. Each line is also followed by gmtoff=N if
33 the given local time is known to be N seconds east of Greenwich.
35 -V Like -v, except omit the times relative to the extreme time
36 values. This generates output that is easier to compare to that
37 of implementations with different time representations.
40 Cut off interval output at the given year(s). Cutoff times are
41 computed using the proleptic Gregorian calendar with year 0 and
42 with Universal Time (UT) ignoring leap seconds. The lower bound
43 is exclusive and the upper is inclusive; for example, a loyear
44 of 1970 excludes a transition occurring at 1970-01-01 00:00:00
45 UTC but a hiyear of 1970 includes the transition. The default
49 Cut off interval output at the given time(s), given in decimal
50 seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00 Coordinated Universal Time
51 (UTC). The zonename determines whether the count includes leap
52 seconds. As with -c, the cutoff's lower bound is exclusive and
53 its upper bound is inclusive.
56 This format is experimental: it may change in future versions.
58 The interval format is a compact text representation that is intended
59 to be both human- and machine-readable. It consists of an empty line,
60 then a line "TZ=string" where string is a double-quoted string giving
61 the zone name, a second line "- - interval" describing the time
62 interval before the first transition if any, and zero or more following
63 lines "date time interval", one line for each transition time and
64 following interval. Fields are separated by single tabs.
66 Dates are in yyyy-mm-dd format and times are in 24-hour hh:mm:ss format
67 where hh<24. Times are in local time immediately after the transition.
68 A time interval description consists of a UT offset in signed +-hhmmss
69 format, a time zone abbreviation, and an isdst flag. An abbreviation
70 that equals the UT offset is omitted; other abbreviations are double-
71 quoted strings unless they consist of one or more alphabetic
72 characters. An isdst flag is omitted for standard time, and otherwise
73 is a decimal integer that is unsigned and positive (typically 1) for
74 daylight saving time and negative for unknown.
76 In times and in UT offsets with absolute value less than 100 hours, the
77 seconds are omitted if they are zero, and the minutes are also omitted
78 if they are also zero. Positive UT offsets are east of Greenwich. The
79 UT offset -00 denotes a UT placeholder in areas where the actual offset
80 is unspecified; by convention, this occurs when the UT offset is zero
81 and the time zone abbreviation begins with "-" or is "zzz".
83 In double-quoted strings, escape sequences represent unusual
84 characters. The escape sequences are \s for space, and \", \\, \f, \n,
85 \r, \t, and \v with their usual meaning in the C programming language.
86 E.g., the double-quoted string ""CET\s\"\\"" represents the character
89 Here is an example of the output, with the leading empty line omitted.
90 (This example is shown with tab stops set far enough apart so that the
91 tabbed columns line up.)
95 1896-01-13 12:01:26 -10:30 HST
96 1933-04-30 03 -09:30 HDT 1
97 1933-05-21 11 -10:30 HST
98 1942-02-09 03 -09:30 HDT 1
99 1945-09-30 01 -10:30 HST
100 1947-06-08 02:30 -10 HST
102 Here, local time begins 10 hours, 31 minutes and 26 seconds west of UT,
103 and is a standard time abbreviated LMT. Immediately after the first
104 transition, the date is 1896-01-13 and the time is 12:01:26, and the
105 following time interval is 10.5 hours west of UT, a standard time
106 abbreviated HST. Immediately after the second transition, the date is
107 1933-04-30 and the time is 03:00:00 and the following time interval is
108 9.5 hours west of UT, is abbreviated HDT, and is daylight saving time.
109 Immediately after the last transition the date is 1947-06-08 and the
110 time is 02:30:00, and the following time interval is 10 hours west of
111 UT, a standard time abbreviated HST.
113 Here are excerpts from another example:
115 TZ="Europe/Astrakhan"
117 1924-04-30 23:47:48 +03
125 This time zone is east of UT, so its UT offsets are positive. Also,
126 many of its time zone abbreviations are omitted since they duplicate
127 the text of the UT offset.
130 Time discontinuities are found by sampling the results returned by
131 localtime at twelve-hour intervals. This works in all real-world
132 cases; one can construct artificial time zones for which this fails.
134 In the -v and -V output, "UT" denotes the value returned by gmtime(3),
135 which uses UTC for modern time stamps and some other UT flavor for time
136 stamps that predate the introduction of UTC. No attempt is currently
137 made to have the output use "UTC" for newer and "UT" for older time
138 stamps, partly because the exact date of the introduction of UTC is
142 newctime(3), tzfile(5), zic(8)