<refsect1>
<title>Parsing Timestamps</title>
- <para>When parsing systemd will accept a similar timestamp syntax,
- but excluding any timezone specification (this limitation might be
- removed eventually). The weekday specification is optional, but
- when the weekday is specified it must either be in the abbreviated
+ <para>When parsing systemd will accept a similar syntax, but expects
+ no timezone specification, unless it is given as the literal string
+ "UTC". In this case the time is considered in UTC time, otherwise in
+ the local timezone. The weekday specification is optional, but when
+ the weekday is specified it must either be in the abbreviated
(<literal>Wed</literal>) or non-abbreviated
(<literal>Wednesday</literal>) English language form (case does
not matter), and is not subject to the locale choice of the user.
00:00.</para>
<para>Examples for valid timestamps and their normalized form
- (assuming the current time was 2012-11-23 18:15:22):</para>
+ (assuming the current time was 2012-11-23 18:15:22 and the timezone
+ was UTC+8, for example TZ=Asia/Shanghai):</para>
<programlisting>Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
2012-11-23 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
- 2012-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
- 12-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
- 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
- 11:12 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:00
- now → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:22
- today → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
- yesterday → Fri 2012-11-22 00:00:00
- tomorrow → Fri 2012-11-24 00:00:00
- +3h30min → Fri 2012-11-23 21:45:22
- -5s → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:17
- 11min ago → Fri 2012-11-23 18:04:22
- @1395716396 → Tue 2014-03-25 03:59:56</programlisting>
+2012-11-23 11:12:13 UTC → Fri 2012-11-23 19:12:13
+ 2012-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
+ 12-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
+ 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
+ 11:12:13.9900009 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
+ format_timestamp_us: Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13.990000
+ 11:12 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:00
+ now → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:22
+ today → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
+ today UTC → Fri 2012-11-23 16:00:00
+ yesterday → Fri 2012-11-22 00:00:00
+ tomorrow → Fri 2012-11-24 00:00:00
+ +3h30min → Fri 2012-11-23 21:45:22
+ +3h30min UTC → -EINVAL
+ -5s → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:17
+ 11min ago → Fri 2012-11-23 18:04:22
+ 11min ago UTC → -EINVAL
+ @1395716396 → Tue 2014-03-25 03:59:56</programlisting>
<para>Note that timestamps printed by systemd will not be parsed
correctly by systemd, as the timezone specification is not