[tz-announce] 2026a release of tz code and data available
The 2026a release of the tz code and data is available. This release corrects the time for Moldova's upcoming clock transition on March 29, as well as on other dates. It also has significant changes to code and to the build procedure. This release contains the following changes: Briefly: Moldova has used EU transition times since 2022. The "right" TZif files are no longer installed by default. -DTZ_RUNTIME_LEAPS=0 disables runtime support for leap seconds. TZif files are no longer limited to 50 bytes of abbreviations. zic is no longer limited to 50 leap seconds. Several integer overflow bugs have been fixed. Changes to past and future timestamps Since 2022 Moldova has observed EU transition times, that is, it has sprung forward at 03:00, not 02:00, and has fallen back at 04:00, not 03:00. (Thanks to Heitor David Pinto.) Changes to data Remove Europe/Chisinau from zonenow.tab, as it now agrees with Europe/Athens for future timestamps. Changes to build procedure The Makefile no longer by default installs an alternate set of TZif files for system clocks that count leap seconds. Install with 'make REDO=posix_right' to get the old default, which is rarely used in major downstream distributions. If your system clock counts leap seconds (contrary to POSIX), it is better to install with 'make REDO=right_only'. This change does not affect the leapseconds file, which is still installed as before. The Makefile's POSIXRULES option, which was declared obsolete in release 2019b, has been removed. The Makefile's build procedure thus no longer optionally installs the obsolete posixrules file. Changes to code Compiling with the new option -DTZ_RUNTIME_LEAPS=0 disables runtime support for leap seconds. Although this conforms to POSIX, shrinks tzcode's attack surface, and is more efficient, it fails to support Internet RFC 9636's leap seconds. zic now can generate, and localtime.c can now use, TZif files that hold up to 256 bytes of abbreviations, counting trailing NULs. The previous limit was 50 bytes, and some tzdata TZif files were already consuming 40 bytes. zic -v warns if it generates a file that exceeds the old 50-byte limit. zic -L can now generate TZif files with more than 50 leap seconds. This helps test TZif readers not limited to 50 leap seconds, as tzcode's localtime.c is; it has little immediate need for practical timekeeping as there have been only 27 leap seconds and possibly there will be no more, due to planned changes to UTC. zic -v warns if its output exceeds the old 50-second limit. localtime.c no longer accesses the posixrules file generated by zic -p. Hence for obsolete and nonconforming settings like TZ="AST4ADT" it now typically falls back on US DST rules, rather than attempting to override this fallback with the contents of the posixrules file. This removes library support that was declared obsolete in release 2019b, and fixes some undefined behavior. (Undefined behavior reported by GitHub user Naveed8951.) The posix2time, posix2time_z, time2posix, and time2posix_z functions now set errno=EOVERFLOW and return ((time_t) -1) if the result is not representable. Formerly they had undefined behavior that could in practice result in crashing, looping indefinitely, or returning an incorrect result. As before, these functions are defined only when localtime.c is compiled with the -DSTD_INSPIRED option. Some other undefined behavior, triggered by TZif files containing outlandish but conforming UT offsets or leap second corrections, has also been fixed. (Some of these bugs reported by Naveed8951.) localtime.c no longer rejects TZif files that exactly fit in its internal structures, fixing off-by-one typos introduced in 2014g. zic no longer generates a no-op transition when simultaneous Rule and Zone changes cancel each other out. This occurs in tzdata only in Asia/Tbilisi on 1997-03-30. (Thanks to Renchunhui for a test case showing the bug.) zic no longer assumes you can fflush a read-only stream. (Problem reported by Christos Zoulas.) zic no longer generates UT offsets equal to -2**31 and localtime.c no longer accepts them, as they can cause trouble in both localtime.c and its callers. RFC 9636 prohibits such offsets. zic -p now warns that the -p option is obsolete and likely ineffective. Here are links to the release files: https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzcode2026a.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzdata2026a.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzdb-2026a.tar.lz The following convenience links are also available, although they may point to the previous release until the relevant caches are refreshed: https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzcode-latest.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzdata-latest.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzdb-latest.tar.lz Links are also available via plain HTTP, and via FTP from ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/releases with the same basenames as above. Each release file has a GPG signature, which can be retrieved by appending ".asc" to the above URLs. Copies of these signatures are appended to this message. This release corresponds to commit dd6be6d1558163517ec55c652efac70842c3b4cc dated 2026-03-01 22:59:49 -0800 and tagged '2026a' in the development GitHub repository at <https://github.com/eggert/tz>. Here are the SHA3-512 checksums for the release files, generated by the GNU coreutils 9.8+ command 'cksum -a sha3 -l 512'. SHA3-512 (tzcode2026a.tar.gz) = 7106762916c6d21aa71fc5b43924582b603e231c90f19fb40ecd81db96208f8a4d6ff9664508c7298c521ab8fed97d4100665f84b2ba17caed04af129e40c5c2 SHA3-512 (tzdata2026a.tar.gz) = 898b090b74d927495a412f382636e4eb2f697e3e357e5a1d35e01cf95f6cdc3bd52533a269ae247b521c6ec1112cbc2df0bb5466accf376e2e7b78a3adde26bd SHA3-512 (tzdb-2026a.tar.lz) = 5aefc96aa15113da1c30fbba7564636e106e3c0e33f475d48f32c5d3417e945fada548176e56c474a85bf02681e101c7b4dd727eb0053d1d39a81c9a13afe37b Here are the SHA-512 checksums for the release files: 69a2ad3334ab1491ba349fcd5d3066a26b38ccb59031fec70ca19379cb0514fe2757af7bee31e796913c0cfc322134e2ba16f93ba07fa45cd4a415b9122b2f27 tzcode2026a.tar.gz 407e8e93aaa054a22a4a7d6d8cf480a20630073bf1a00956df16b10318f239a12015de38fad3072249193e314d6fddbff4e74afa40a88f7bf5c9eecc7659ea15 tzdata2026a.tar.gz 1824fc2e198a449ebaa41e6c679a494c486b848f13fe8f18f948fde0533e99f5f01e7e7298e257c565838d24ec743e824f402887abdf525d1ce578a714c71414 tzdb-2026a.tar.lz Here are GPG digital signatures for the release files: -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAABCgAdFiEEfjeSqdis99YzvBWI7ZfpDmKqfjQFAmmlNgMACgkQ7ZfpDmKq fjS64g//TxOxFmBXtJRx4LM8QIL315hvWwVpVAmAk+oFzqjluosfb3xbszBw3fWw PzcOyQ8PDXV42dq29jO8JjVJkCrvLiBjXWTTV6yDRqp3TEBh5uM4cUormnfcTLkT bmgVLLmqiNZgZpEHrsQQKaf8Ia/23F2topG0USSzqguLgLBVLcdut8Djfqb5qpqV xurq88ciC+ZvLENJsBXyfJzN2neuCOelbXgPDz+LJZrv3mJqFrm7EzxHngE8xZ+j Ny0V6WFaZJisWEif4oGeTPtxQS+LT/2bDBKtNpcFQhvquS6dU0nHHVAvNAIZaGNf HeQ/LgxFDQjnIisoqKA61qNmZZ1F5rDuYtL/j53nhjJpLkaDAoEU+xfKtYybJzir mH7Dj8WwUcLwH7lT/U4KDZmiUiT49Vk/u/7+pI1Vx7OogJ4Vs9WTtCt8avNGkwFF qez91hNIb6iZzVbnSKz+TWlfnBgltFQU02ozTZNW6K3TawLuwgyMoAGX0kaK8Lxy 8KKEo53phmmFnZ9vQKEJkJdaaIuisK1qJH1K6cj2GX44bhpDfT/kq4AQQbR7HDWR ZSTB5oG4TvqfGd3bKrDzpGOOLJ2AoiBaGi+rcA8n4WWvdGxodIJ6RU1cDI+RHPfv 8caWfWcEtAPCciArx2pa10gupda67DF1pwxAYLEbr+dmg2S8jQI= =/yto -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAABCgAdFiEEfjeSqdis99YzvBWI7ZfpDmKqfjQFAmmlNgMACgkQ7ZfpDmKq fjR04A//YmSFvKQi/w8hfB5fAf4VSV+5HBIeuTRJPn9BuRAUvZVYl78ApYGzSqPh sG3H/IPprHICVxMJcPBvEI7+tXVPozCOnwUx7jz2nAvl7awxj5n2z1zs+jjZ+/pU kiQ4x4uZDJTw5wsymy9nPasoQba5kmSItjB7fDXe2wwjPOh3osOzSfC0KDnPvTxl jPxBTd+CXDmz5fiI7RPSi1uJWJFXEtE+NpaltQpA8J1M7QSv2O+7x3eLfNoa1Eh9 GQ5JjtvMixdQGxFzMeID/Y2Rjj3vKFpB0+blf1zu5aBchemmvW/DFpOBhdm+lRf0 Me1TVlmlBI3oj4lrNhGIz3f7zf+IrPVfAAQ/hMMcyYc/FwYuuV9SSF0Aj2pWR0Mi wvASEXb23bWu2t1aeu7by7XSnL033o1P5DqWDueVSilTdeVSOS0EtyyFMC6THmj4 PcQh7/O60zbPhsUXan85rOC1CNv9lZJlEzZShy3B3tAccGr4IKrPRT/jIhVwVbu9 rS25dLR9S/bcrYTpn4aaWMPQ9tuYJ/83i1euAgs7NjKao0lziPTOPaBvqW6fdg1v /4dHluvwMufDLa23WVy2iPueTPD8NDH228xwrtGm/Spyu3XCX7YZJdCJVcNF0E9m W4z5R07LGBZYKscd9T8otPJyzTLcunLmnaf/Mbsrj4FmB+dNof8= =SR0V -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIzBAABCgAdFiEEfjeSqdis99YzvBWI7ZfpDmKqfjQFAmmlNgQACgkQ7ZfpDmKq fjRfhg//WKsUlkhd9treq8Q3YMju7fezVZhvinFib7mmC3kn3HM5Xo2AKakjtwYn d0ZDuA886qFp3Llkn3pwnEh8vugE0A86qRwk3D3RoL/QfpbKkrVyAWONEWCHMKF1 MswUEO01Lcxd+CmjFWsH+dEhJ8HHLlPgyYgWCy6X3zvTyCLK5navq93QTmIKBguy tXAtWClft7wEv4Sg6xI0MtcAMamt5aBP9oC284XJbjfHz169QcK5VaCJPG82kuDs ABorgc6KVJN88SzPWsajpEQQE17hsH99y+Jh4UR4Lx4s06+52zOl814t0Aru28B2 K8u0PF5mO3druoHN8ielp9gdqIMk5JbOobhezGmnNPQT2ZIazTBa22/zVknkqoLq 6NQnpPekc2sjuVljRYCRkDwWXaUYfl8gR7e59Ew45IfFBpRCfkpEFK4A97KGfGVM gSCdW/N+9lCG2p1MrrRETykyGCX181rtnw8RXO+ADxmz8ddQ5WRrmGIkBYi7iocY 2iULltrLOAzCnUGsN0x/7xk8fLf7MRX+cExUJG992foiPQ/6N/06gp6SNeJyuKgG hI5TO9RIsR8JzjfUpI0Nbr9ZwkQuLFfkvvXSZeYwVU4rFNEHaQqz4dVvcfTAwi1T 9AK8S/7FjRoh/aqbUe9rVsUAOUcoOAkgCd2bUkcYLQ8FXJqJPYA= =t0qu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Hello, I was wondering if the recent changes to Vancouvers timezones would be included in the next release? https://www.timeanddate.com/news/time/canada-bc-permanent-dst.html Thank you! Chrisitan Hubbell On Mon, Mar 2, 2026 at 12:04 PM Paul Eggert via tz-announce < tz-announce@iana.org> wrote:
The 2026a release of the tz code and data is available. This release corrects the time for Moldova's upcoming clock transition on March 29, as well as on other dates. It also has significant changes to code and to the build procedure.
This release contains the following changes:
Briefly: Moldova has used EU transition times since 2022. The "right" TZif files are no longer installed by default. -DTZ_RUNTIME_LEAPS=0 disables runtime support for leap seconds. TZif files are no longer limited to 50 bytes of abbreviations. zic is no longer limited to 50 leap seconds. Several integer overflow bugs have been fixed.
Changes to past and future timestamps
Since 2022 Moldova has observed EU transition times, that is, it has sprung forward at 03:00, not 02:00, and has fallen back at 04:00, not 03:00. (Thanks to Heitor David Pinto.)
Changes to data
Remove Europe/Chisinau from zonenow.tab, as it now agrees with Europe/Athens for future timestamps.
Changes to build procedure
The Makefile no longer by default installs an alternate set of TZif files for system clocks that count leap seconds. Install with 'make REDO=posix_right' to get the old default, which is rarely used in major downstream distributions. If your system clock counts leap seconds (contrary to POSIX), it is better to install with 'make REDO=right_only'. This change does not affect the leapseconds file, which is still installed as before.
The Makefile's POSIXRULES option, which was declared obsolete in release 2019b, has been removed. The Makefile's build procedure thus no longer optionally installs the obsolete posixrules file.
Changes to code
Compiling with the new option -DTZ_RUNTIME_LEAPS=0 disables runtime support for leap seconds. Although this conforms to POSIX, shrinks tzcode's attack surface, and is more efficient, it fails to support Internet RFC 9636's leap seconds.
zic now can generate, and localtime.c can now use, TZif files that hold up to 256 bytes of abbreviations, counting trailing NULs. The previous limit was 50 bytes, and some tzdata TZif files were already consuming 40 bytes. zic -v warns if it generates a file that exceeds the old 50-byte limit.
zic -L can now generate TZif files with more than 50 leap seconds. This helps test TZif readers not limited to 50 leap seconds, as tzcode's localtime.c is; it has little immediate need for practical timekeeping as there have been only 27 leap seconds and possibly there will be no more, due to planned changes to UTC. zic -v warns if its output exceeds the old 50-second limit.
localtime.c no longer accesses the posixrules file generated by zic -p. Hence for obsolete and nonconforming settings like TZ="AST4ADT" it now typically falls back on US DST rules, rather than attempting to override this fallback with the contents of the posixrules file. This removes library support that was declared obsolete in release 2019b, and fixes some undefined behavior. (Undefined behavior reported by GitHub user Naveed8951.)
The posix2time, posix2time_z, time2posix, and time2posix_z functions now set errno=EOVERFLOW and return ((time_t) -1) if the result is not representable. Formerly they had undefined behavior that could in practice result in crashing, looping indefinitely, or returning an incorrect result. As before, these functions are defined only when localtime.c is compiled with the -DSTD_INSPIRED option.
Some other undefined behavior, triggered by TZif files containing outlandish but conforming UT offsets or leap second corrections, has also been fixed. (Some of these bugs reported by Naveed8951.)
localtime.c no longer rejects TZif files that exactly fit in its internal structures, fixing off-by-one typos introduced in 2014g.
zic no longer generates a no-op transition when simultaneous Rule and Zone changes cancel each other out. This occurs in tzdata only in Asia/Tbilisi on 1997-03-30. (Thanks to Renchunhui for a test case showing the bug.)
zic no longer assumes you can fflush a read-only stream. (Problem reported by Christos Zoulas.)
zic no longer generates UT offsets equal to -2**31 and localtime.c no longer accepts them, as they can cause trouble in both localtime.c and its callers. RFC 9636 prohibits such offsets.
zic -p now warns that the -p option is obsolete and likely ineffective.
Here are links to the release files:
https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzcode2026a.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzdata2026a.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/releases/tzdb-2026a.tar.lz
The following convenience links are also available, although they may point to the previous release until the relevant caches are refreshed:
https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzcode-latest.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzdata-latest.tar.gz https://www.iana.org/time-zones/repository/tzdb-latest.tar.lz
Links are also available via plain HTTP, and via FTP from ftp://ftp.iana.org/tz/releases with the same basenames as above.
Each release file has a GPG signature, which can be retrieved by appending ".asc" to the above URLs. Copies of these signatures are appended to this message.
This release corresponds to commit dd6be6d1558163517ec55c652efac70842c3b4cc dated 2026-03-01 22:59:49 -0800 and tagged '2026a' in the development GitHub repository at <https://github.com/eggert/tz>.
Here are the SHA3-512 checksums for the release files, generated by the GNU coreutils 9.8+ command 'cksum -a sha3 -l 512'.
SHA3-512 (tzcode2026a.tar.gz) =
7106762916c6d21aa71fc5b43924582b603e231c90f19fb40ecd81db96208f8a4d6ff9664508c7298c521ab8fed97d4100665f84b2ba17caed04af129e40c5c2 SHA3-512 (tzdata2026a.tar.gz) =
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5aefc96aa15113da1c30fbba7564636e106e3c0e33f475d48f32c5d3417e945fada548176e56c474a85bf02681e101c7b4dd727eb0053d1d39a81c9a13afe37b
Here are the SHA-512 checksums for the release files:
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tzcode2026a.tar.gz 407e8e93aaa054a22a4a7d6d8cf480a20630073bf1a00956df16b10318f239a12015de38fad3072249193e314d6fddbff4e74afa40a88f7bf5c9eecc7659ea15
tzdata2026a.tar.gz 1824fc2e198a449ebaa41e6c679a494c486b848f13fe8f18f948fde0533e99f5f01e7e7298e257c565838d24ec743e824f402887abdf525d1ce578a714c71414
tzdb-2026a.tar.lz
Here are GPG digital signatures for the release files:
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participants (2)
-
Christian Hubbell -
Paul Eggert -
Paul Eggert via tz-announce