Date: Sat, 29 Nov 1997 09:24:09 -0500 (EST)
Message-Id: <199711291424.JAA08880@delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: kifox AT hotmail DOT com
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <65op13$57f$1@winter.news.erols.com> (kifox@hotmail.com)
Subject: Re: zoneinfo
Precedence: bulk


> What exactly is this directory used for?

The zoneinfo files keep track of all the anomolies relating to leap
years, daylight savings time, and time corrections for various
locations and for various times in history.  These files are used
primarily for converting between "local clock time" (struct tm) and
"seconds since the epoch" (time_t).  Most people in the USA won't need
them, because the USA data is built-in to DJGPP's library as the
default (when you set TZ=EST5EDT you use this default).  Users also
have the choice of specifying the conversion rules explicitly in the
TZ environment variable.