Help With Understanding the Binary Files

[Guy Harris]

On Dec 9, 2009, at 6:09 AM, Bill Seymour wrote:

> Could somebody please help me interpret the tz
> binary files?
>
> I'm having trouble understanding what to do with
> the two arrays that follow the leap second array.
>
> 1.  tzfile.h says that they're "indexed by type";
> but I don't see anything in the "type" (which I
> take to mean what tzfile.5 calls "struct ttinfo")
> that could be used as such an index.  Does
> "indexed by type" mean "having the same index
> as the type", in other words, the value from
> the array following the transition time array?

Yes.  The "number of local time types" is what's stored in the  
tzh_typecnt field, so the array of structures containing

	coded UTC offset in seconds
	tm_isdst value
	abbreviation list index

is indexed by the local time type (as it has tzh_typecnt elements),  
and the array following the transition time array is an array of  
"types of local time starting at above".

See also "man tzfile" on UN*X systems that use the Olson code (and  
that bother to install the man page).

> 2.  tzfile.h seems to imply that these booleans
> indicate how I should interpret the values in
> the array of transition times.  Is that correct?
> If so, how do I calculate standard time while
> DST is being observed given that the SAVE column
> in the Rule has been lost?  Do I assume that the
> offset for DST is always exactly 1 hour?

No.  Presumably "standard time", at a time when DST is being observed,  
is what the time would have been had the most recent standard time ->  
DST transition not happened (note that the offset between GMT and  
*standard* time in a particular time zone can change over time, so  
it's not as if a given location has to remain at the same offset from  
GMT forever), so you should get the offset from GMT for the entry  
prior to the current entry.

> 3.  tzfile.5 says that these "are used when a time
> zone file is used in handling POSIX-style time zone
> environment variables."  Does that mean that the
> "transition times" are the ones in the TZ variable,

No.

It means that the TZ variable can be in one of the following forms:

	:{pathname}, in which case the part of TZ after the : is the pathname  
of the time zone file to use - absolute if it begins with /, relative  
to the directory containing the zoneinfo files if it doesn't begin  
with /;

	{something not beginning with :}, in which case the value of TZ in  
its entirety is used as a pathname, and if the pathname (again,  
absolute if it begins with /, relative to the directory containing the  
zoneinfo files if it doesn't begin with /) refers to a time zone file  
that can be read, that file is used, otherwise it's used as a POSIX- 
style time zone setting.

If it's used as a POSIX-style time zone setting rather than as a file  
name, and the setting of TZ includes no transition rules, the time  
zone file "posixrules", in the directory containing the zoneinfo  
files, is used to specify when transitions between standard time and  
DST happen.  See the tzset man page:

            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:

                         J n      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.

                         M m.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 Sun-
                                  day.

                                  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 the TZ  
specification, the
                         rules specified by the tzfile(5)-format file
                         posixrules in the system time conversion  
information
                         directory are used, with the standard and  
summer time
                         offsets from UTC replaced by those specified  
by the
                         offset values in TZ.