The TZUpdater tool is provided to allow you to update installed Java Development Kit (JDK) and Java Runtime Environment (JRE) software with more recent timezone data, to accommodate daylight saving time (DST) changes in different countries. Oracle relies on the timezone data publicly available through IANA's Time Zone Database.
Oracle recommends that you use the latest Oracle Java SE platform JDK or JRE update release as the preferred means of delivering both timezone data updates and other product improvements, such as security fixes. To see which JDK or JRE update release incorporates the updated timezone data for your locale, see Timezone Data Versions in the JRE Software. However, if you are unable to use Oracle's latest JDK or JRE update release or if the timezone data on the latest release is not the most current one available, the TZUpdater tool provides a means of updating timezone data while leaving other system configuration and dependencies unchanged.
The TZUpdater tool supports all currently supported versions of the JDK. Prior to version 2.3.1, the tool only worked on Oracle binaries.
A version of TZUpdater tool for updating the current version of Oracle’s Java Runtime Enviroment is available in Oracle Technology Network - Java SE Download Page.
Support customers can download a TZUpdater tool for older versions through My Oracle Support.
The TZUpdater tool modifies the JDK/JRE software instance that is used to execute the tool. A single image of the JDK/JRE software is modified per execution. To administer the tool to multiple instances of the JDK/JRE software, see the section Systemwide Usage.
You must stop any running instances of the JDK/JRE software to be operated upon before you run the TZUpdater tool on that installed JDK/JRE software image.
Run the TZUpdater tool with the following command:
java -jar tzupdater.jar options
To update timezone data successfully, you should ensure that you have sufficient privileges to modify the JDK_HOME
/jre/lib
or JRE_HOME
/lib
directory. If you do not have sufficient privileges to modify these directories, contact your system administrator.
If you do not specify any options, the usage message is displayed. To update the timezone data, use either the -l
or the -f
option.
The tool tries to restore the original state when it has encountered an unexpected error, such as lack of disk space.
If a user wishes to raise an issue against TZUpdater, please file a bug at http://bugs.java.com.
The 2.3.0 release now supports the vanguard tzdata format which has not been supported since tzdata2018e
. The following are the related bug fixes:
tzupdater.forceUseOfVanguard
, is introduced as a fallback option if the TZUpdater fails due to unforeseen circumstances. -Dtzupdater.forceUseOfVanguard=true
The IANA website now provides https functionality to allow secure downloading of tzdata resource bundles. As a result, the SHA-512 digest calculations (and hosted files) for tzdata bundle downloads are no longer required.
Updated the protocol used for connecting to IANA for downloading the latest time-zone information to match recent changes in the IANA sites.
JDK-8193405 (not public) : tzupdater.jar --version
fails to correctly display latest version
JDK-8166928 : TZupdater failing with tzdata2016g release due to missing version information
-u
Option Removed
Use the -l
option to update data. For information on this option and other options available, pass the -h
option to the tool as shown in the following example:
java -jar tzupdater.jar -h
tzupdater.jar
file is digitally signed. Use the following command to verify the signature: jarsigner -verify -verbose -certs tzupdater.jar
JDK-8151879 : TZupdater not able to update with tzdata2016b release
JDK-8149811 : TZUpdater tool removes PST timezone from Java 7
Starting with version 2.0, the "-l"
option allows the user to point to the IANA repositories and get the tool to compile the latest tzdata sources on demand.
The tool also references a https resource website for SHA-512 hash values if the -l option is specified with a http or https protocol.
For this reason, any environment which operates with proxy access, will need to set the http and https proxy values while running the tool.
HTTP: -Dhttp.proxyHost, -Dhttp.proxyPort HTTPS : -Dhttps.proxyHost, -Dhttps.proxyPort
If the tool is unable to connect to the specified resource, a socket exception will be thrown:
Network issue while connecting to http resource. Please reference tzupdater README.
Automatic SHA-512 hash checks will be performed on the downloaded tzdata bundle for integrity verification. If the SHA-512 hash value does not match expectations, the tool will exit.
There may be some situations where a new tzdata release is available but Oracle has not yet updated the https resource website with the new SHA-512 hash value.
In such cases, the user will see the following exception message:
No SHA-512 hash file found: https://javadl-esd-secure.oracle.com/update/tzupdater/tzdata2014a.tar.gz.sha512. If using http(s) resource location, the file may not yet be available. Please reference tzupdater README
The user, in such a case, has the option to use the file:// protocol with the new -l
option where they can specify their own local SHA-512 hash value:
tzdata.tar.gz
bundle to a local directory.For example, if you've downloaded tzdata2014a.tar.gz
to a local directory, then a file named tzdata2014a.tar.gz.sha512
must also exist in the same directory and must contain the SHA-512 hash value that corresponds to the tzdata2014a.tar.gz
file.
tzdata2014a.tar.gz
to /tmp
directory and created the necessary /tmp/tzdata2014a.tar.gz.sha512
file which contains the one line sha512 hash value, the following command can be used to run the tzdata update: java -jar tzupdater.jar -l file:///tmp/tzdata2014a.tar.gz
(Add the -v
option for verbose output)The tool has a few restrictions due to the TimeZone API and implementation constraints.
/usr/bin/find DIRPATH -fstype nfs -prune -o -fstype autofs -prune -o -name java -print -exec {} -version \;
Where DIRPATH
is a directory path to search under for installed instances of the Java SE platform, for example, /usr
. /usr/bin/find DIRPATH -fstype nfs -prune -o -fstype autofs -prune -o -name java -print -exec {} -jar / ABSOLUTEPATH/tzupdater.jar -l \;
Where DIRPATH
is a directory path to search under for installed instances of the Java SE platform, for example, /usr
. ABSOLUTEPATH
should be replaced with the full path name to the directory into which tzupdater.jar
is expanded.
umask
settings on Solaris The TZUpdater tool creates files with default file permissions. On the Solaris operating system, this is taken from the umask
. A default umask
of 022 should be used for running the TZudpater tool. A more restrictive umask
such as umask 077
will mean files created by the tool are unreadable by other users.
The following issue is known to exist when processing tzdata2020a:
Due to formatting changes in the IANA-maintained tzdata bundle, the TZUpdater tool fails to update to tzdata2020a for JDK 7u.
The issue is being tracked under:
Please refer to the bug for a temporary workaround.
Since the 2018e tzdata release, the TZUpdater tool will need to use the rearguard format of tzdata provided by IANA. Further information can be found at:
The rearguard format of tzdata is provided for compatibility purposes. The tz-announce mails contain links to the relevant rearguard formats which should be used with the TZUpdater tool. Use the -l feature of the tool to specify which tzdata bundle should be used.
For example:
java -jar tzupdater.jar -l https://web.cs.ucla.edu/~eggert/tz/release/2019a/tzdata2019a-rearguard.tar.gz
TZUpdater is a pure Java tool that does not address platform-specific software management issues. For example, on a Windows system, this means that the additional and backup files created by the tool will not be removed during an uninstall. To uninstall updated JRE software, check the JRE software's install directory and remove it manually once the uninstaller completes.
For Solaris systems, where the JRE software being updated exists as a Solaris package (such as in /usr/j2se
or /usr/jdk/
instances), this has meant that the pkgchk
command would highlight the changes as errors or inconsistencies. Starting with version 1.1.0 of TZUpdater, the tool runs an additional series of package management commands that updates the package database where appropriate.
On a Solaris 10 system where existing package-based JRE software has been updated by the initial release of TZUpdater, and zones have been created, the zones will contain the same pkgchk
errors as the global zone. During zone creation, these pkgchk
errors will be highlighted at the end of the zone installation command.
To resolve Solaris package database errors, take the following steps. However, if you are not running on a Solaris 10 system or your system does not have zones, only step 1 is required. If the system is a Solaris 10 system with additional zones, run step 1 only in the global zone and follow steps 2 and 3.
Run the current version of TZUpdater, with the -f force
option to reapply the timezone update to a previously updated JRE software instance. The update will take place, and the additional package resolution commands will be executed. The update must be executed as the root user and is relevant to the global zone only in a Solaris 10 system.
pkg_resolve.sh
script from the tzupdater.jar
file /bin/jar xf tzupdater.jar pkg_resolve.sh
/bin/ksh ./pkg_resolve.sh JAVA_PATH
For example: /bin/ksh ./pkg_resolve.sh /usr/jdk/instances/jdk1.8.0/bin/java
NOTE: The update to the package system removes many files from the package database and reinserts them, so it can take up to 15 minutes.
You must stop any running instances of the JDK/JRE software to be operated upon before you run the TZUpdater tool on that installed JDK/JRE software image.
There is currently no option to remove TZUpdater modifications. By following the following steps, you can manually remove the modifications made by the current TZUpdater tool.
For JDK 7 and earlier family versions:
'zi'
directory under the modified JAVAHOME/jre/lib directory. This is the newer data file.'zi.tzdata*'
directory in the same JAVAHOME/jre/lib directory. This is the replaced, older data.java -jar tzupdater.jar -V
.zi
' directory to something like 'zi.tzdata2016b'
, or whatever version was given by the command in step 3. Ensure this does not conflict with the older data directory.'zi'
.java -jar tzupdater.jar -V
.For JDK 8 and later family versions:
'tzdb.dat'
file under the modified JAVAHOME/jre/lib directory. This is the newer data file.'tzdb.dat.<oldtzdataversion>'
; file in the same JAVAHOME/jre/lib directory. This is the replaced, older data file.java -jar tzupdater.jar -V
.'tzdb.dat'
file to something like 'tzdb.dat.<newtzdataversion>'
, or whatever version was given by the command in step 3. Ensure this name does not conflict with the older data files.'tzdb.dat'
.java -jar tzupdater.jar -V
.The following links point to information provided by Oracle Corporation relating to timezones and DST changes and how they affect the Java platform and other Oracle products:
The following external links provide general information about timezones and DST: