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+<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>B.5. POSIX Time Zone Specifications</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheet.css" /><link rev="made" href="pgsql-docs@lists.postgresql.org" /><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot" /><link rel="prev" href="datetime-config-files.html" title="B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files" /><link rel="next" href="datetime-units-history.html" title="B.6. History of Units" /></head><body id="docContent" class="container-fluid col-10"><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="5" align="center">B.5. <acronym xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="acronym">POSIX</acronym> Time Zone Specifications</th></tr><tr><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="datetime-config-files.html" title="B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files">Prev</a> </td><td width="10%" align="left"><a accesskey="u" href="datetime-appendix.html" title="Appendix B. Date/Time Support">Up</a></td><th width="60%" align="center">Appendix B. Date/Time Support</th><td width="10%" align="right"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 14.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="10%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="datetime-units-history.html" title="B.6. History of Units">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></hr></div><div class="sect1" id="DATETIME-POSIX-TIMEZONE-SPECS"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">B.5. <acronym class="acronym">POSIX</acronym> Time Zone Specifications</h2></div></div></div><a id="id-1.11.3.8.2" class="indexterm"></a><p>
+ <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span> can accept time zone specifications
+ that are written according to the <acronym class="acronym">POSIX</acronym> standard's rules
+ for the <code class="varname">TZ</code> environment
+ variable. <acronym class="acronym">POSIX</acronym> time zone specifications are
+ inadequate to deal with the complexity of real-world time zone history,
+ but there are sometimes reasons to use them.
+ </p><p>
+ A POSIX time zone specification has the form
+</p><pre class="synopsis">
+<em class="replaceable"><code>STD</code></em> <em class="replaceable"><code>offset</code></em> [<span class="optional"> <em class="replaceable"><code>DST</code></em> [<span class="optional"> <em class="replaceable"><code>dstoffset</code></em> </span>] [<span class="optional"> , <em class="replaceable"><code>rule</code></em> </span>] </span>]
+</pre><p>
+ (For readability, we show spaces between the fields, but spaces should
+ not be used in practice.) The fields are:
+ </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>STD</code></em> is the zone abbreviation to be used
+ for standard time.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>offset</code></em> is the zone's standard-time offset
+ from UTC.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>DST</code></em> is the zone abbreviation to be used
+ for daylight-savings time. If this field and the following ones are
+ omitted, the zone uses a fixed UTC offset with no daylight-savings
+ rule.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>dstoffset</code></em> is the daylight-savings offset
+ from UTC. This field is typically omitted, since it defaults to one
+ hour less than the standard-time <em class="replaceable"><code>offset</code></em>,
+ which is usually the right thing.
+ </p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>rule</code></em> defines the rule for when daylight
+ savings is in effect, as described below.
+ </p></li></ul></div><p>
+ </p><p>
+ In this syntax, a zone abbreviation can be a string of letters, such
+ as <code class="literal">EST</code>, or an arbitrary string surrounded by angle
+ brackets, such as <code class="literal">&lt;UTC-05&gt;</code>.
+ Note that the zone abbreviations given here are only used for output,
+ and even then only in some timestamp output formats. The zone
+ abbreviations recognized in timestamp input are determined as explained
+ in <a class="xref" href="datetime-config-files.html" title="B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files">Section B.4</a>.
+ </p><p>
+ The offset fields specify the hours, and optionally minutes and seconds,
+ difference from UTC. They have the format
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>hh</code></em>[<span class="optional"><code class="literal">:</code><em class="replaceable"><code>mm</code></em>[<span class="optional"><code class="literal">:</code><em class="replaceable"><code>ss</code></em></span>]</span>]
+ optionally with a leading sign (<code class="literal">+</code>
+ or <code class="literal">-</code>). The positive sign is used for
+ zones <span class="emphasis"><em>west</em></span> of Greenwich. (Note that this is the
+ opposite of the ISO-8601 sign convention used elsewhere in
+ <span class="productname">PostgreSQL</span>.) <em class="replaceable"><code>hh</code></em>
+ can have one or two digits; <em class="replaceable"><code>mm</code></em>
+ and <em class="replaceable"><code>ss</code></em> (if used) must have two.
+ </p><p>
+ The daylight-savings transition <em class="replaceable"><code>rule</code></em> has the
+ format
+</p><pre class="synopsis">
+<em class="replaceable"><code>dstdate</code></em> [<span class="optional"> <code class="literal">/</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>dsttime</code></em> </span>] <code class="literal">,</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>stddate</code></em> [<span class="optional"> <code class="literal">/</code> <em class="replaceable"><code>stdtime</code></em> </span>]
+</pre><p>
+ (As before, spaces should not be included in practice.)
+ The <em class="replaceable"><code>dstdate</code></em>
+ and <em class="replaceable"><code>dsttime</code></em> fields define when daylight-savings
+ time starts, while <em class="replaceable"><code>stddate</code></em>
+ and <em class="replaceable"><code>stdtime</code></em> define when standard time
+ starts. (In some cases, notably in zones south of the equator, the
+ former might be later in the year than the latter.) The date fields
+ have one of these formats:
+ </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"><em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
+ A plain integer denotes a day of the year, counting from zero to
+ 364, or to 365 in leap years.
+ </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">J</code><em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
+ In this form, <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em> counts from 1 to 365,
+ and February 29 is not counted even if it is present. (Thus, a
+ transition occurring on February 29 could not be specified this
+ way. However, days after February have the same numbers whether
+ it's a leap year or not, so that this form is usually more useful
+ than the plain-integer form for transitions on fixed dates.)
+ </p></dd><dt><span class="term"><code class="literal">M</code><em class="replaceable"><code>m</code></em><code class="literal">.</code><em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em><code class="literal">.</code><em class="replaceable"><code>d</code></em></span></dt><dd><p>
+ This form specifies a transition that always happens during the same
+ month and on the same day of the week. <em class="replaceable"><code>m</code></em>
+ identifies the month, from 1 to 12. <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>
+ specifies the <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em>'th occurrence of the
+ weekday identified by <em class="replaceable"><code>d</code></em>.
+ <em class="replaceable"><code>n</code></em> is a number between 1 and 4, or 5
+ meaning the last occurrence of that weekday in the month (which
+ could be the fourth or the fifth). <em class="replaceable"><code>d</code></em> is
+ a number between 0 and 6, with 0 indicating Sunday.
+ For example, <code class="literal">M3.2.0</code> means <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">the second
+ Sunday in March</span>”</span>.
+ </p></dd></dl></div><p>
+ </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p>
+ The <code class="literal">M</code> format is sufficient to describe many common
+ daylight-savings transition laws. But note that none of these variants
+ can deal with daylight-savings law changes, so in practice the
+ historical data stored for named time zones (in the IANA time zone
+ database) is necessary to interpret past time stamps correctly.
+ </p></div><p>
+ The time fields in a transition rule have the same format as the offset
+ fields described previously, except that they cannot contain signs.
+ They define the current local time at which the change to the other
+ time occurs. If omitted, they default to <code class="literal">02:00:00</code>.
+ </p><p>
+ If a daylight-savings abbreviation is given but the
+ transition <em class="replaceable"><code>rule</code></em> field is omitted,
+ the fallback behavior is to use the
+ rule <code class="literal">M3.2.0,M11.1.0</code>, which corresponds to USA
+ practice as of 2020 (that is, spring forward on the second Sunday of
+ March, fall back on the first Sunday of November, both transitions
+ occurring at 2AM prevailing time). Note that this rule does not
+ give correct USA transition dates for years before 2007.
+ </p><p>
+ As an example, <code class="literal">CET-1CEST,M3.5.0,M10.5.0/3</code> describes
+ current (as of 2020) timekeeping practice in Paris. This specification
+ says that standard time has the abbreviation <code class="literal">CET</code> and
+ is one hour ahead (east) of UTC; daylight savings time has the
+ abbreviation <code class="literal">CEST</code> and is implicitly two hours ahead
+ of UTC; daylight savings time begins on the last Sunday in March at 2AM
+ CET and ends on the last Sunday in October at 3AM CEST.
+ </p><p>
+ The four timezone names <code class="literal">EST5EDT</code>,
+ <code class="literal">CST6CDT</code>, <code class="literal">MST7MDT</code>,
+ and <code class="literal">PST8PDT</code> look like they are POSIX zone
+ specifications. However, they actually are treated as named time zones
+ because (for historical reasons) there are files by those names in the
+ IANA time zone database. The practical implication of this is that
+ these zone names will produce valid historical USA daylight-savings
+ transitions, even when a plain POSIX specification would not.
+ </p><p>
+ One should be wary that it is easy to misspell a POSIX-style time zone
+ specification, since there is no check on the reasonableness of the
+ zone abbreviation(s). For example, <code class="literal">SET TIMEZONE TO
+ FOOBAR0</code> will work, leaving the system effectively using a
+ rather peculiar abbreviation for UTC.
+ </p></div><div xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/transitional" class="navfooter"><hr></hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="datetime-config-files.html" title="B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="datetime-appendix.html" title="Appendix B. Date/Time Support">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="datetime-units-history.html" title="B.6. History of Units">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">B.4. Date/Time Configuration Files </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html" title="PostgreSQL 14.5 Documentation">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> B.6. History of Units</td></tr></table></div></body></html> \ No newline at end of file