<pre>Network Working Group                                           G. Klyne
Request for Comments: 3339                        Clearswift Corporation
Category: Standards Track                                      C. Newman
                                                        Sun Microsystems
                                                               July 2002


               <span class="h1">Date and Time on the Internet: Timestamps</span>

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This document defines a date and time format for use in Internet
   protocols that is a profile of the ISO 8601 standard for
   representation of dates and times using the Gregorian calendar.

Table of Contents

   <a href="#section-1">1</a>. Introduction ............................................ <a href="#page-2">2</a>
   <a href="#section-2">2</a>. Definitions ............................................. <a href="#page-3">3</a>
   <a href="#section-3">3</a>. Two Digit Years ......................................... <a href="#page-4">4</a>
   <a href="#section-4">4</a>. Local Time .............................................. <a href="#page-4">4</a>
   <a href="#section-4.1">4.1</a>. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) ...................... <a href="#page-4">4</a>
   <a href="#section-4.2">4.2</a>. Local Offsets ......................................... <a href="#page-5">5</a>
   <a href="#section-4.3">4.3</a>. Unknown Local Offset Convention ....................... <a href="#page-5">5</a>
   <a href="#section-4.4">4.4</a>. Unqualified Local Time ................................ <a href="#page-5">5</a>
   <a href="#section-5">5</a>. Date and Time format .................................... <a href="#page-6">6</a>
   <a href="#section-5.1">5.1</a>. Ordering .............................................. <a href="#page-6">6</a>
   <a href="#section-5.2">5.2</a>. Human Readability ..................................... <a href="#page-6">6</a>
   <a href="#section-5.3">5.3</a>. Rarely Used Options ................................... <a href="#page-7">7</a>
   <a href="#section-5.4">5.4</a>. Redundant Information ................................. <a href="#page-7">7</a>
   <a href="#section-5.5">5.5</a>. Simplicity ............................................ <a href="#page-7">7</a>
   <a href="#section-5.6">5.6</a>. Internet Date/Time Format ............................. <a href="#page-8">8</a>
   <a href="#section-5.7">5.7</a>. Restrictions .......................................... <a href="#page-9">9</a>
   <a href="#section-5.8">5.8</a>. Examples ............................................. <a href="#page-10">10</a>
   <a href="#section-6">6</a>. References ............................................. <a href="#page-10">10</a>
   <a href="#section-7">7</a>. Security Considerations ................................ <a href="#page-11">11</a>



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   <a href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>. ISO 8601 Collected ABNF ....................... <a href="#page-12">12</a>
   <a href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>. Day of the Week ............................... <a href="#page-14">14</a>
   <a href="#appendix-C">Appendix C</a>. Leap Years .................................... <a href="#page-14">14</a>
   <a href="#appendix-D">Appendix D</a>. Leap Seconds ..............................,... <a href="#page-15">15</a>
   Acknowledgements .......................................... <a href="#page-17">17</a>
   Authors' Addresses ........................................ <a href="#page-17">17</a>
   Full Copyright Statement .................................. <a href="#page-18">18</a>

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-1" href="#section-1">1</a>. Introduction</span>

   Date and time formats cause a lot of confusion and interoperability
   problems on the Internet.  This document addresses many of the
   problems encountered and makes recommendations to improve consistency
   and interoperability when representing and using date and time in
   Internet protocols.

   This document includes an Internet profile of the ISO 8601 [<a href="#ref-ISO8601" title="&quot;Data elements and interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates and times&quot;">ISO8601</a>]
   standard for representation of dates and times using the Gregorian
   calendar.

   There are many ways in which date and time values might appear in
   Internet protocols:  this document focuses on just one common usage,
   viz. timestamps for Internet protocol events.  This limited
   consideration has the following consequences:

   o  All dates and times are assumed to be in the "current era",
      somewhere between 0000AD and 9999AD.

   o  All times expressed have a stated relationship (offset) to
      Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).  (This is distinct from some
      usage in scheduling applications where a local time and location
      may be known, but the actual relationship to UTC may be dependent
      on the unknown or unknowable actions of politicians or
      administrators.  The UTC time corresponding to 17:00 on 23rd March
      2005 in New York may depend on administrative decisions about
      daylight savings time.  This specification steers well clear of
      such considerations.)

   o  Timestamps can express times that occurred before the introduction
      of UTC.  Such timestamps are expressed relative to universal time,
      using the best available practice at the stated time.

   o  Date and time expressions indicate an instant in time.
      Description of time periods, or intervals, is not covered here.







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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-2" href="#section-2">2</a>. Definitions</span>

   The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
   "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
   document are to be interpreted as described in <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a> [<a href="./rfc2119" title="&quot;Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement Levels&quot;">RFC2119</a>].

      UTC         Coordinated Universal Time as maintained by the Bureau
                  International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM).

      second      A basic unit of measurement of time in the
                  International System of Units.  It is defined as the
                  duration of 9,192,631,770 cycles of microwave light
                  absorbed or emitted by the hyperfine transition of
                  cesium-133 atoms in their ground state undisturbed by
                  external fields.

      minute      A period of time of 60 seconds.  However, see also the
                  restrictions in <a href="#section-5.7">section 5.7</a> and <a href="#appendix-D">Appendix D</a> for how
                  leap seconds are denoted within minutes.

      hour        A period of time of 60 minutes.

      day         A period of time of 24 hours.

      leap year   In the Gregorian calendar, a year which has 366 days.
                  A leap year is a year whose number is divisible by
                  four an integral number of times, except that if it is
                  a centennial year (i.e. divisible by one hundred) it
                  shall also be divisible by four hundred an integral
                  number of times.

      ABNF        Augmented Backus-Naur Form, a format used to represent
                  permissible strings in a protocol or language, as
                  defined in [<a href="#ref-ABNF" title="&quot;Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF&quot;">ABNF</a>].

      Email Date/Time Format
                  The date/time format used by Internet Mail as defined
                  by <a href="./rfc2822">RFC 2822</a> [<a href="#ref-IMAIL-UPDATE" title="&quot;Internet Message Format&quot;">IMAIL-UPDATE</a>].

      Internet Date/Time Format
                  The date format defined in <a href="#section-5">section 5</a> of this document.

      Timestamp   This term is used in this document to refer to an
                  unambiguous representation of some instant in time.

      Z           A suffix which, when applied to a time, denotes a UTC
                  offset of 00:00; often spoken "Zulu" from the ICAO
                  phonetic alphabet representation of the letter "Z".



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      For more information about time scales, see <a href="#appendix-E">Appendix E</a> of [<a href="#ref-NTP" title="&quot;Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation and Analysis&quot;">NTP</a>],
      Section 3 of [<a href="#ref-ISO8601" title="&quot;Data elements and interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates and times&quot;">ISO8601</a>], and the appropriate ITU documents [ITU-R-
      TF].

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-3" href="#section-3">3</a>. Two Digit Years</span>

   The following requirements are to address the problems of ambiguity
   of 2-digit years:

      o  Internet Protocols MUST generate four digit years in dates.

      o  The use of 2-digit years is deprecated.  If a 2-digit year is
         received, it should be accepted ONLY if an incorrect
         interpretation will not cause a protocol or processing failure
         (e.g. if used only for logging or tracing purposes).

      o  It is possible that a program using two digit years will
         represent years after 1999 as three digits.  This occurs if the
         program simply subtracts 1900 from the year and doesn't check
         the number of digits.  Programs wishing to robustly deal with
         dates generated by such broken software may add 1900 to three
         digit years.

      o  It is possible that a program using two digit years will
         represent years after 1999 as ":0", ":1", ... ":9", ";0", ...
         This occurs if the program simply subtracts 1900 from the year
         and adds the decade to the US-ASCII character zero.  Programs
         wishing to robustly deal with dates generated by such broken
         software should detect non-numeric decades and interpret
         appropriately.

   The problems with two digit years amply demonstrate why all dates and
   times used in Internet protocols MUST be fully qualified.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-4" href="#section-4">4</a>. Local Time</span>

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.1" href="#section-4.1">4.1</a>. Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)</span>

   Because the daylight saving rules for local time zones are so
   convoluted and can change based on local law at unpredictable times,
   true interoperability is best achieved by using Coordinated Universal
   Time (UTC).  This specification does not cater to local time zone
   rules.








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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.2" href="#section-4.2">4.2</a>. Local Offsets</span>

   The offset between local time and UTC is often useful information.
   For example, in electronic mail (<a href="./rfc2822">RFC2822</a>, [<a href="#ref-IMAIL-UPDATE" title="&quot;Internet Message Format&quot;">IMAIL-UPDATE</a>]) the local
   offset provides a useful heuristic to determine the probability of a
   prompt response.  Attempts to label local offsets with alphabetic
   strings have resulted in poor interoperability in the past [<a href="#ref-IMAIL" title="&quot;Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text Messages&quot;">IMAIL</a>],
   [<a href="#ref-HOST-REQ" title="&quot;Requirements for Internet Hosts -- Application and Support&quot;">HOST-REQ</a>].  As a result, <a href="./rfc2822">RFC2822</a> [<a href="#ref-IMAIL-UPDATE" title="&quot;Internet Message Format&quot;">IMAIL-UPDATE</a>] has made numeric
   offsets mandatory.

   Numeric offsets are calculated as "local time minus UTC".  So the
   equivalent time in UTC can be determined by subtracting the offset
   from the local time.  For example, 18:50:00-04:00 is the same time as
   22:50:00Z.  (This example shows negative offsets handled by adding
   the absolute value of the offset.)

      NOTE: Following ISO 8601, numeric offsets represent only time
      zones that differ from UTC by an integral number of minutes.
      However, many historical time zones differ from UTC by a non-
      integral number of minutes.  To represent such historical time
      stamps exactly, applications must convert them to a representable
      time zone.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.3" href="#section-4.3">4.3</a>. Unknown Local Offset Convention</span>

   If the time in UTC is known, but the offset to local time is unknown,
   this can be represented with an offset of "-00:00".  This differs
   semantically from an offset of "Z" or "+00:00", which imply that UTC
   is the preferred reference point for the specified time.  <a href="./rfc2822">RFC2822</a>
   [<a href="#ref-IMAIL-UPDATE" title="&quot;Internet Message Format&quot;">IMAIL-UPDATE</a>] describes a similar convention for email.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-4.4" href="#section-4.4">4.4</a>. Unqualified Local Time</span>

   A number of devices currently connected to the Internet run their
   internal clocks in local time and are unaware of UTC.  While the
   Internet does have a tradition of accepting reality when creating
   specifications, this should not be done at the expense of
   interoperability.  Since interpretation of an unqualified local time
   zone will fail in approximately 23/24 of the globe, the
   interoperability problems of unqualified local time are deemed
   unacceptable for the Internet.  Systems that are configured with a
   local time, are unaware of the corresponding UTC offset, and depend
   on time synchronization with other Internet systems, MUST use a
   mechanism that ensures correct synchronization with UTC.  Some
   suitable mechanisms are:

   o  Use Network Time Protocol [<a href="#ref-NTP" title="&quot;Network Time Protocol (Version 3) Specification, Implementation and Analysis&quot;">NTP</a>] to obtain the time in UTC.




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   o  Use another host in the same local time zone as a gateway to the
      Internet.  This host MUST correct unqualified local times that are
      transmitted to other hosts.

   o  Prompt the user for the local time zone and daylight saving rule
      settings.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-5" href="#section-5">5</a>. Date and Time format</span>

   This section discusses desirable qualities of date and time formats
   and defines a profile of ISO 8601 for use in Internet protocols.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.1" href="#section-5.1">5.1</a>. Ordering</span>

   If date and time components are ordered from least precise to most
   precise, then a useful property is achieved.  Assuming that the time
   zones of the dates and times are the same (e.g., all in UTC),
   expressed using the same string (e.g., all "Z" or all "+00:00"), and
   all times have the same number of fractional second digits, then the
   date and time strings may be sorted as strings (e.g., using the
   strcmp() function in C) and a time-ordered sequence will result.  The
   presence of optional punctuation would violate this characteristic.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.2" href="#section-5.2">5.2</a>. Human Readability</span>

   Human readability has proved to be a valuable feature of Internet
   protocols.  Human readable protocols greatly reduce the costs of
   debugging since telnet often suffices as a test client and network
   analyzers need not be modified with knowledge of the protocol.  On
   the other hand, human readability sometimes results in
   interoperability problems.  For example, the date format "10/11/1996"
   is completely unsuitable for global interchange because it is
   interpreted differently in different countries.  In addition, the
   date format in [<a href="#ref-IMAIL" title="&quot;Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet Text Messages&quot;">IMAIL</a>] has resulted in interoperability problems when
   people assumed any text string was permitted and translated the three
   letter abbreviations to other languages or substituted date formats
   which were easier to generate (e.g. the format used by the C function
   ctime).  For this reason, a balance must be struck between human
   readability and interoperability.

   Because no date and time format is readable according to the
   conventions of all countries, Internet clients SHOULD be prepared to
   transform dates into a display format suitable for the locality.
   This may include translating UTC to local time.







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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.3" href="#section-5.3">5.3</a>. Rarely Used Options</span>

   A format which includes rarely used options is likely to cause
   interoperability problems.  This is because rarely used options are
   less likely to be used in alpha or beta testing, so bugs in parsing
   are less likely to be discovered.  Rarely used options should be made
   mandatory or omitted for the sake of interoperability whenever
   possible.

   The format defined below includes only one rarely used option:
   fractions of a second.  It is expected that this will be used only by
   applications which require strict ordering of date/time stamps or
   which have an unusual precision requirement.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.4" href="#section-5.4">5.4</a>. Redundant Information</span>

   If a date/time format includes redundant information, that introduces
   the possibility that the redundant information will not correlate.
   For example, including the day of the week in a date/time format
   introduces the possibility that the day of week is incorrect but the
   date is correct, or vice versa.  Since it is not difficult to compute
   the day of week from a date (see <a href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>), the day of week should
   not be included in a date/time format.

<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.5" href="#section-5.5">5.5</a>. Simplicity</span>

   The complete set of date and time formats specified in ISO 8601
   [<a href="#ref-ISO8601" title="&quot;Data elements and interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates and times&quot;">ISO8601</a>] is quite complex in an attempt to provide multiple
   representations and partial representations.  <a href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a> contains an
   attempt to translate the complete syntax of ISO 8601 into ABNF.
   Internet protocols have somewhat different requirements and
   simplicity has proved to be an important characteristic.  In
   addition, Internet protocols usually need complete specification of
   data in order to achieve true interoperability.  Therefore, the
   complete grammar for ISO 8601 is deemed too complex for most Internet
   protocols.

   The following section defines a profile of ISO 8601 for use on the
   Internet.  It is a conformant subset of the ISO 8601 extended format.
   Simplicity is achieved by making most fields and punctuation
   mandatory.










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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.6" href="#section-5.6">5.6</a>. Internet Date/Time Format</span>

   The following profile of ISO 8601 [<a href="#ref-ISO8601" title="&quot;Data elements and interchange formats -- Information interchange -- Representation of dates and times&quot;">ISO8601</a>] dates SHOULD be used in
   new protocols on the Internet.  This is specified using the syntax
   description notation defined in [<a href="#ref-ABNF" title="&quot;Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF&quot;">ABNF</a>].

   date-fullyear   = 4DIGIT
   date-month      = 2DIGIT  ; 01-12
   date-mday       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31 based on
                             ; month/year
   time-hour       = 2DIGIT  ; 00-23
   time-minute     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-59
   time-second     = 2DIGIT  ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60 based on leap second
                             ; rules
   time-secfrac    = "." 1*DIGIT
   time-numoffset  = ("+" / "-") time-hour ":" time-minute
   time-offset     = "Z" / time-numoffset

   partial-time    = time-hour ":" time-minute ":" time-second
                     [time-secfrac]
   full-date       = date-fullyear "-" date-month "-" date-mday
   full-time       = partial-time time-offset

   date-time       = full-date "T" full-time

      NOTE: Per [<a href="#ref-ABNF" title="&quot;Augmented BNF for Syntax Specifications: ABNF&quot;">ABNF</a>] and ISO8601, the "T" and "Z" characters in this
      syntax may alternatively be lower case "t" or "z" respectively.

      This date/time format may be used in some environments or contexts
      that distinguish between the upper- and lower-case letters 'A'-'Z'
      and 'a'-'z' (e.g. XML).  Specifications that use this format in
      such environments MAY further limit the date/time syntax so that
      the letters 'T' and 'Z' used in the date/time syntax must always
      be upper case.  Applications that generate this format SHOULD use
      upper case letters.

      NOTE: ISO 8601 defines date and time separated by "T".
      Applications using this syntax may choose, for the sake of
      readability, to specify a full-date and full-time separated by
      (say) a space character.











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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.7" href="#section-5.7">5.7</a>. Restrictions</span>

   The grammar element date-mday represents the day number within the
   current month.  The maximum value varies based on the month and year
   as follows:

      Month Number  Month/Year           Maximum value of date-mday
      ------------  ----------           --------------------------
      01            January              31
      02            February, normal     28
      02            February, leap year  29
      03            March                31
      04            April                30
      05            May                  31
      06            June                 30
      07            July                 31
      08            August               31
      09            September            30
      10            October              31
      11            November             30
      12            December             31

   <a href="#appendix-C">Appendix C</a> contains sample C code to determine if a year is a leap
   year.

   The grammar element time-second may have the value "60" at the end of
   months in which a leap second occurs -- to date: June (XXXX-06-
   30T23:59:60Z) or December (XXXX-12-31T23:59:60Z); see <a href="#appendix-D">Appendix D</a> for
   a table of leap seconds.  It is also possible for a leap second to be
   subtracted, at which times the maximum value of time-second is "58".
   At all other times the maximum value of time-second is "59".
   Further, in time zones other than "Z", the leap second point is
   shifted by the zone offset (so it happens at the same instant around
   the globe).

   Leap seconds cannot be predicted far into the future.  The
   International Earth Rotation Service publishes bulletins [<a href="#ref-IERS">IERS</a>] that
   announce leap seconds with a few weeks' warning.  Applications should
   not generate timestamps involving inserted leap seconds until after
   the leap seconds are announced.

   Although ISO 8601 permits the hour to be "24", this profile of ISO
   8601 only allows values between "00" and "23" for the hour in order
   to reduce confusion.







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<span class="h3"><a class="selflink" id="section-5.8" href="#section-5.8">5.8</a>. Examples</span>

   Here are some examples of Internet date/time format.

      1985-04-12T23:20:50.52Z

   This represents 20 minutes and 50.52 seconds after the 23rd hour of
   April 12th, 1985 in UTC.

      1996-12-19T16:39:57-08:00

   This represents 39 minutes and 57 seconds after the 16th hour of
   December 19th, 1996 with an offset of -08:00 from UTC (Pacific
   Standard Time).  Note that this is equivalent to 1996-12-20T00:39:57Z
   in UTC.

      1990-12-31T23:59:60Z

   This represents the leap second inserted at the end of 1990.

      1990-12-31T15:59:60-08:00

   This represents the same leap second in Pacific Standard Time, 8
   hours behind UTC.

      1937-01-01T12:00:27.87+00:20

   This represents the same instant of time as noon, January 1, 1937,
   Netherlands time.  Standard time in the Netherlands was exactly 19
   minutes and 32.13 seconds ahead of UTC by law from 1909-05-01 through
   1937-06-30.  This time zone cannot be represented exactly using the
   HH:MM format, and this timestamp uses the closest representable UTC
   offset.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-6" href="#section-6">6</a>. References</span>

   [<a id="ref-ZELLER">ZELLER</a>]       Zeller, C., "Kalender-Formeln", Acta Mathematica, Vol.
                  9, Nov 1886.

   [<a id="ref-IMAIL">IMAIL</a>]        Crocker, D., "Standard for the Format of Arpa Internet
                  Text Messages", STD 11, <a href="./rfc822">RFC 822</a>, August 1982.

   [<a id="ref-IMAIL-UPDATE">IMAIL-UPDATE</a>] Resnick, P., "Internet Message Format", <a href="./rfc2822">RFC 2822</a>,
                  April 2001.

   [<a id="ref-ABNF">ABNF</a>]         Crocker, D. and P. Overell, "Augmented BNF for Syntax
                  Specifications: ABNF", <a href="./rfc2234">RFC 2234</a>, November 1997.




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   [<a id="ref-ISO8601">ISO8601</a>]      "Data elements and interchange formats -- Information
                  interchange -- Representation of dates and times", ISO
                  8601:1988(E), International Organization for
                  Standardization, June, 1988.

   [ISO8601:2000] "Data elements and interchange formats -- Information
                  interchange -- Representation of dates and times", ISO
                  8601:2000, International Organization for
                  Standardization, December, 2000.

   [<a id="ref-HOST-REQ">HOST-REQ</a>]     Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts --
                  Application and Support", STD 3, <a href="./rfc1123">RFC 1123</a>, October
                  1989.

   [<a id="ref-IERS">IERS</a>]         International Earth Rotation Service Bulletins,
                  &lt;<a href="http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/products/bulletins.html">http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-</a>
                  <a href="http://hpiers.obspm.fr/eop-pc/products/bulletins.html">pc/products/bulletins.html</a>&gt;.

   [<a id="ref-NTP">NTP</a>]          Mills, D, "Network Time Protocol (Version 3)
                  Specification, Implementation and Analysis", <a href="./rfc1305">RFC 1305</a>,
                  March 1992.

   [<a id="ref-ITU-R-TF">ITU-R-TF</a>]     International Telecommunication Union Recommendations
                  for Time Signals and Frequency Standards Emissions.
                  &lt;<a href="http://www.itu.ch/publications/itu-r/iturtf.htm">http://www.itu.ch/publications/itu-r/iturtf.htm</a>&gt;

   [<a id="ref-RFC2119">RFC2119</a>]      Bradner, S, "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
                  Requirement Levels", <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/bcp/bcp14">BCP 14</a>, <a href="./rfc2119">RFC 2119</a>, March 1997.

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="section-7" href="#section-7">7</a>. Security Considerations</span>

   Since the local time zone of a site may be useful for determining a
   time when systems are less likely to be monitored and might be more
   susceptible to a security probe, some sites may wish to emit times in
   UTC only.  Others might consider this to be loss of useful
   functionality at the hands of paranoia.















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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-A" href="#appendix-A">Appendix A</a>. ISO 8601 Collected ABNF</span>

   This information is based on the 1988 version of ISO 8601.  There may
   be some changes in the 2000 revision.

   ISO 8601 does not specify a formal grammar for the date and time
   formats it defines.  The following is an attempt to create a formal
   grammar from ISO 8601.  This is informational only and may contain
   errors.  ISO 8601 remains the authoritative reference.

   Note that due to ambiguities in ISO 8601, some interpretations had to
   be made.  First, ISO 8601 is not clear if mixtures of basic and
   extended format are permissible.  This grammar permits mixtures. ISO
   8601 is not clear on whether an hour of 24 is permissible only if
   minutes and seconds are 0.  This assumes that an hour of 24 is
   permissible in any context.  Restrictions on date-mday in <a href="#section-5.7">section 5.7</a>
   apply.  ISO 8601 states that the "T" may be omitted under some
   circumstances.  This grammar requires the "T" to avoid ambiguity.
   ISO 8601 also requires (in <a href="#section-5.3.1.3">section 5.3.1.3</a>) that a decimal fraction
   be proceeded by a "0" if less than unity.  Annex B.2 of ISO 8601
   gives examples where the decimal fractions are not preceded by a "0".
   This grammar assumes <a href="#section-5.3.1.3">section 5.3.1.3</a> is correct and that Annex B.2 is
   in error.

   date-century    = 2DIGIT  ; 00-99
   date-decade     =  DIGIT  ; 0-9
   date-subdecade  =  DIGIT  ; 0-9
   date-year       = date-decade date-subdecade
   date-fullyear   = date-century date-year
   date-month      = 2DIGIT  ; 01-12
   date-wday       =  DIGIT  ; 1-7  ; 1 is Monday, 7 is Sunday
   date-mday       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-28, 01-29, 01-30, 01-31 based on
                             ; month/year
   date-yday       = 3DIGIT  ; 001-365, 001-366 based on year
   date-week       = 2DIGIT  ; 01-52, 01-53 based on year

   datepart-fullyear = [date-century] date-year ["-"]
   datepart-ptyear   = "-" [date-subdecade ["-"]]
   datepart-wkyear   = datepart-ptyear / datepart-fullyear

   dateopt-century   = "-" / date-century
   dateopt-fullyear  = "-" / datepart-fullyear
   dateopt-year      = "-" / (date-year ["-"])
   dateopt-month     = "-" / (date-month ["-"])
   dateopt-week      = "-" / (date-week ["-"])






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   datespec-full     = datepart-fullyear date-month ["-"] date-mday
   datespec-year     = date-century / dateopt-century date-year
   datespec-month    = "-" dateopt-year date-month [["-"] date-mday]
   datespec-mday     = "--" dateopt-month date-mday
   datespec-week     = datepart-wkyear "W"
                       (date-week / dateopt-week date-wday)
   datespec-wday     = "---" date-wday
   datespec-yday     = dateopt-fullyear date-yday

   date              = datespec-full / datespec-year
                       / datespec-month /
   datespec-mday / datespec-week / datespec-wday / datespec-yday

Time:

   time-hour         = 2DIGIT ; 00-24
   time-minute       = 2DIGIT ; 00-59
   time-second       = 2DIGIT ; 00-58, 00-59, 00-60 based on
                              ; leap-second rules
   time-fraction     = ("," / ".") 1*DIGIT
   time-numoffset    = ("+" / "-") time-hour [[":"] time-minute]
   time-zone         = "Z" / time-numoffset

   timeopt-hour      = "-" / (time-hour [":"])
   timeopt-minute    = "-" / (time-minute [":"])

   timespec-hour     = time-hour [[":"] time-minute [[":"] time-second]]
   timespec-minute   = timeopt-hour time-minute [[":"] time-second]
   timespec-second   = "-" timeopt-minute time-second
   timespec-base     = timespec-hour / timespec-minute / timespec-second

   time              = timespec-base [time-fraction] [time-zone]

   iso-date-time     = date "T" time

Durations:

   dur-second        = 1*DIGIT "S"
   dur-minute        = 1*DIGIT "M" [dur-second]
   dur-hour          = 1*DIGIT "H" [dur-minute]
   dur-time          = "T" (dur-hour / dur-minute / dur-second)
   dur-day           = 1*DIGIT "D"
   dur-week          = 1*DIGIT "W"
   dur-month         = 1*DIGIT "M" [dur-day]
   dur-year          = 1*DIGIT "Y" [dur-month]
   dur-date          = (dur-day / dur-month / dur-year) [dur-time]

   duration          = "P" (dur-date / dur-time / dur-week)



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Periods:

   period-explicit   = iso-date-time "/" iso-date-time
   period-start      = iso-date-time "/" duration
   period-end        = duration "/" iso-date-time

   period            = period-explicit / period-start / period-end

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-B" href="#appendix-B">Appendix B</a>. Day of the Week</span>

   The following is a sample C subroutine loosely based on Zeller's
   Congruence [Zeller] which may be used to obtain the day of the week
   for dates on or after 0000-03-01:

   char *day_of_week(int day, int month, int year)
   {
      int cent;
      char *dayofweek[] = {
         "Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday",
         "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"
      };

      /* adjust months so February is the last one */
      month -= 2;
      if (month &lt; 1) {
         month += 12;
         --year;
      }
      /* split by century */
      cent = year / 100;
      year %= 100;
      return (dayofweek[((26 * month - 2) / 10 + day + year
                        + year / 4 + cent / 4 + 5 * cent) % 7]);
   }

<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-C" href="#appendix-C">Appendix C</a>. Leap Years</span>

   Here is a sample C subroutine to calculate if a year is a leap year:

   /* This returns non-zero if year is a leap year.  Must use 4 digit
      year.
    */
   int leap_year(int year)
   {
       return (year % 4 == 0 &amp;&amp; (year % 100 != 0 || year % 400 == 0));
   }





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<span class="h2"><a class="selflink" id="appendix-D" href="#appendix-D">Appendix D</a>. Leap Seconds</span>

   Information about leap seconds can be found at:
   &lt;<a href="http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html">http://tycho.usno.navy.mil/leapsec.html</a>&gt;.  In particular, it notes
   that:

      The decision to introduce a leap second in UTC is the
      responsibility of the International Earth Rotation Service (IERS).
      According to the CCIR Recommendation, first preference is given to
      the opportunities at the end of December and June, and second
      preference to those at the end of March and September.

   When required, insertion of a leap second occurs as an extra second
   at the end of a day in UTC, represented by a timestamp of the form
   YYYY-MM-DDT23:59:60Z.  A leap second occurs simultaneously in all
   time zones, so that time zone relationships are not affected.  See
   <a href="#section-5.8">section 5.8</a> for some examples of leap second times.

   The following table is an excerpt from the table maintained by the
   United States Naval Observatory.  The source data is located at:

      &lt;<a href="ftp://maia.usno.navy.mil/ser7/tai-utc.dat">ftp://maia.usno.navy.mil/ser7/tai-utc.dat</a>&gt;





























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   This table shows the date of the leap second, and the difference
   between the time standard TAI (which isn't adjusted by leap seconds)
   and UTC after that leap second.

   UTC Date  TAI - UTC After Leap Second
   --------  ---------------------------
   1972-06-30     11
   1972-12-31     12
   1973-12-31     13
   1974-12-31     14
   1975-12-31     15
   1976-12-31     16
   1977-12-31     17
   1978-12-31     18
   1979-12-31     19
   1981-06-30     20
   1982-06-30     21
   1983-06-30     22
   1985-06-30     23
   1987-12-31     24
   1989-12-31     25
   1990-12-31     26
   1992-06-30     27
   1993-06-30     28
   1994-06-30     29
   1995-12-31     30
   1997-06-30     31
   1998-12-31     32























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Acknowledgements

   The following people provided helpful advice for an earlier
   incarnation of this document:  Ned Freed, Neal McBurnett, David
   Keegel, Markus Kuhn, Paul Eggert and Robert Elz.  Thanks are also due
   to participants of the IETF Calendaring/Scheduling working group
   mailing list, and participants of the time zone mailing list.

   The following reviewers contributed helpful suggestions for the
   present revision: Tom Harsch, Markus Kuhn, Pete Resnick, Dan Kohn.
   Paul Eggert provided many careful observations regarding the
   subtleties of leap seconds and time zone offsets.  The following
   people noted corrections and improvements to earlier drafts: Dr John
   Stockton, Jutta Degener, Joe Abley, and Dan Wing.

Authors' Addresses

   Chris Newman
   Sun Microsystems
   1050 Lakes Drive, Suite 250
   West Covina, CA 91790 USA

   EMail: chris.newman@sun.com


   Graham Klyne (editor, this revision)
   Clearswift Corporation
   1310 Waterside
   Arlington Business Park
   Theale, Reading  RG7 4SA
   UK

   Phone: +44 11 8903 8903
   Fax:   +44 11 8903 9000
   EMail: GK@ACM.ORG
















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Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2002).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
   included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
   document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
   the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
   Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
   developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
   copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Acknowledgement

   Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the
   Internet Society.



















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</pre>