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(tar.info)Time of day items

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Time of day items
=================

   A "time of day item" in date strings specifies the time on a given
day.  Here are some examples, all of which represent the same time:

     20:02:0
     20:02
     8:02pm
     20:02-0500      # In EST (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).

   More generally, the time of the day may be given as
`HOUR:MINUTE:SECOND', where HOUR is a number between 0 and 23, MINUTE
is a number between 0 and 59, and SECOND is a number between 0 and 59.
Alternatively, `:SECOND' can be omitted, in which case it is taken to
be zero.

   If the time is followed by `am' or `pm' (or `a.m.' or `p.m.'), HOUR
is restricted to run from 1 to 12, and `:MINUTE' may be omitted (taken
to be zero).  `am' indicates the first half of the day, `pm' indicates
the second half of the day.  In this notation, 12 is the predecessor of
1: midnight is `12am' while noon is `12pm'.  (This is the zero-oriented
interpretation of `12am' and `12pm', as opposed to the old tradition
derived from Latin which uses `12m' for noon and `12pm' for midnight.)

   The time may alternatively be followed by a time zone correction,
expressed as `SHHMM', where S is `+' or `-', HH is a number of zone
hours and MM is a number of zone minutes.  When a time zone correction
is given this way, it forces interpretation of the time relative to
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), overriding any previous specification
for the time zone or the local time zone.  The MINUTE part of the time
of the day may not be elided when a time zone correction is used.  This
is the best way to specify a time zone correction by fractional parts
of an hour.

   Either `am'/`pm' or a time zone correction may be specified, but not
both.