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README for the tz distribution |
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|
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"What time is it?" -- Richard Deacon as The King |
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"Any time you want it to be." -- Frank Baxter as The Scientist |
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(from the Bell System film "About Time") |
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|
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The Time Zone Database (often called tz or zoneinfo) contains code and |
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data that represent the history of local time for many representative |
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locations around the globe. It is updated periodically to reflect |
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changes made by political bodies to time zone boundaries, UTC offsets, |
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and daylight-saving rules. |
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|
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See <https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tz-link.html> or the |
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file tz-link.html for how to acquire the code and data. Once acquired, |
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read the comments in the file 'Makefile' and make any changes needed |
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to make things right for your system, especially if you are using some |
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platform other than GNU/Linux. Then run the following commands, |
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substituting your desired installation directory for "$HOME/tzdir": |
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|
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make TOPDIR=$HOME/tzdir install |
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$HOME/tzdir/usr/bin/zdump -v America/Los_Angeles |
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|
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Historical local time information has been included here to: |
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|
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* provide a compendium of data about the history of civil time |
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that is useful even if not 100% accurate; |
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* give an idea of the variety of local time rules that have |
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existed in the past and thus an idea of the variety that may be |
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expected in the future; |
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|
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* provide a test of the generality of the local time rule description |
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system. |
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The information in the time zone data files is by no means authoritative; |
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fixes and enhancements are welcome. Please see the file CONTRIBUTING |
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for details. |
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|
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Thanks to these Time Zone Caballeros who've made major contributions to the |
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time conversion package: Keith Bostic; Bob Devine; Paul Eggert; Robert Elz; |
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Guy Harris; Mark Horton; John Mackin; and Bradley White. Thanks also to |
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Michael Bloom, Art Neilson, Stephen Prince, John Sovereign, and Frank Wales |
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for testing work, and to Gwillim Law for checking local mean time data. |
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Thanks in particular to Arthur David Olson, the project's founder and first |
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maintainer, to whom the time zone community owes the greatest debt of all. |
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None of them are responsible for remaining errors. |
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|
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----- |
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|
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This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of 2009-05-17 by |
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Arthur David Olson. The other files in this distribution are either |
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public domain or BSD licensed; see the file LICENSE for details. |