Son-of-RFC1036:[Previous][Up to Table of Contents] [Next]

          The  Date header contains the date and time when the article
          was submitted for transmission:

               Date-content  = [ weekday "," space ] date space time
               weekday       = "Mon" / "Tue" / "Wed" / "Thu"
                             / "Fri" / "Sat" / "Sun"
               date          = day space month space year
               day           = 1*2digit
               month         = "Jan" / "Feb" / "Mar" / "Apr" / "May" / "Jun"
                             / "Jul" / "Aug" / "Sep" / "Oct" / "Nov" / "Dec"
               year          = 4digit / 2digit
               time          = hh ":" mm [ ":" ss ] space timezone
               timezone      = "UT" / "GMT"
                             / ( "+" / "-" ) hh mm [ space "(" zone-name ")" ]
               hh            = 2digit
               mm            = 2digit
               ss            = 2digit
               zone-name     = 1*( <ASCII printable character except ()\> / space )

          This is a restricted subset of the MAIL date format.

          If a weekday is given, it MUST be consistent with the  date.
          The  modern  Gregorian  calendar  is used, and dates MUST be
          consistent with its usual conventions; for example,  if  the
          month  is  May,  the day must be between 1 and 31 inclusive.
          The year SHOULD be given as four digits, and posting  agents
          SHOULD  enforce this; however, relayers MUST accept the two-
          digit form, and MUST interpret it  as  having  the  implicit
          prefix "19".

               NOTE: Two-digit year numbers can, should, and must
               be phased out by 1999.

          The time is given on  the  24-hour  clock,  e.g.  two  hours
          before  midnight  is  "22:00" or "22:00:00".  The hh must be
          between 00 and 23 inclusive, the mm between 0 and 59  inclu-
          sive, and the ss between 0 and 61 inclusive.

               NOTE:  Leap  seconds  very  occasionally result in
               minutes that are 61 or 62 seconds long.


          The date and time SHOULD be  given  in  the  poster's  local
          timezone,  including  a  specification of that timezone as a
          numeric offset (which SHOULD include the timezone name, e.g.
          "EST",  supplied  in  parentheses  like a MAIL comment).  If
          not, they MUST be given in Universal Time (abbreviated "UT";
          "GMT"  is a historical synonym for "UT").  The timezone name
          in parentheses, if present,  is  a  comment;  software  MUST
          ignore  it, except that reading agents might wish to display
          it to the reader.  Timezone names other than "UT" and  "GMT"
          MUST appear only in the comment.

               NOTE: Attempts to deal with a full set of timezone
               names have all foundered on  the  vast  number  of
               such  names in use and the duplications (for exam-
               ple, there are at least FIVE  different  timezones
               called  "EST"  by somebody).  Even the limited set
               of North American zone names authorized by MAIL is
               subject to confusion and misinterpretation.  Hence
               the flat ban on non-UT timezone  names  except  as
               comments.

               NOTE:  RFC 1036 specified that use of GMT (aka UT,
               UTC) was preferred.  However, the local  time  (in
               the  poster's timezone) is arguably information of
               possible interest to the reader, and this requires
               some indication of the poster's timezone.  Numeric
               offsets are an unambiguous way of doing this,  and
               their  use was indeed sanctioned by RFC 1036 (that
               is, this is a change of preference only).

               NOTE:  There  is  frequent  confusion,   including
               errors  in  some news software, regarding the sign
               of numeric timezones.   Zones  west  of  Greenwich
               have  negative offsets.  For example, North Ameri-
               can Eastern Standard Time is zone -0500 and  North
               American Eastern Daylight Time is zone -0400.

               NOTE:  Implementors  are  warned  that the hh in a
               timezone can go up to about 14; it is not  limited
               to  12.   This  is  because the International Date
               Line does  not  run  exactly  along  the  boundary
               between zone -1200 and zone +1200.

               NOTE: The comments in section 2.6 regarding trans-
               lation to other languages are relevant here.   The
               Date-content format, and the spellings of its com-
               ponents, as  found  in  articles  themselves,  are
               always as defined in this Draft, regardless of the
               language  used  to  interact  with   readers   and
               posters.  Reading and posting agents should trans-
               late  as  appropriate.   Actually,  even  English-
               language  reading and posting agents will probably
               want to do some degree of translation on dates, if
               only   to   abbreviate   the  lengthy  format  and
               (perhaps) translate to and from the reader's time-
               zone.