Backports ZoneInfo

0.2.1 · active · verified Thu Apr 09

backports.zoneinfo provides a backport of the `zoneinfo` module from Python 3.9 for users running Python 3.6, 3.7, or 3.8. It offers an efficient, C-based implementation of the `zoneinfo` module, allowing older Python versions to use the standard library's `ZoneInfo` object for handling IANA time zones. The current version is 0.2.1, with releases typically happening as needed for bug fixes or minor enhancements.

Warnings

gotcha When using `backports-zoneinfo` on Python versions older than 3.9, the correct import path is `from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo`. Using `from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo` will result in an `ImportError` because the `zoneinfo` module is not built-in.
Fix: Always import from `backports.zoneinfo` when targeting Python 3.6-3.8. For Python 3.9+, use `from zoneinfo import ZoneInfo`.
gotcha `backports.zoneinfo` only provides the `ZoneInfo` API; it does not bundle timezone data itself. You must ensure that timezone data (e.g., IANA Time Zone Database) is available on your system for `ZoneInfo` to correctly resolve timezone names. Without this data, `ZoneInfo("America/New_York")` will raise a `ZoneInfoNotFoundError`.
Fix: Install the `tzdata` package (`pip install tzdata`) which provides a standard source of timezone data, or ensure your operating system provides `zoneinfo` files (e.g., in `/usr/share/zoneinfo`).
breaking An issue in version 0.2.0 caused `ZoneInfo.__init_subclass__` to not be a classmethod, leading to errors when attempting to subclass `ZoneInfo` directly. This was fixed in version 0.2.1.
Fix: Upgrade to `backports-zoneinfo>=0.2.1` to correctly subclass `ZoneInfo`.

Install

pip install backports-zoneinfo Install `backports-zoneinfo`

Imports

ZoneInfo
```
from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo
```
On Python < 3.9, the built-in `zoneinfo` module does not exist. The backport lives in the `backports.zoneinfo` namespace.

Quickstart

This quickstart demonstrates importing `ZoneInfo` and using it to create a timezone-aware datetime object. Note that `backports.zoneinfo` provides the API, but relies on system timezone data (e.g., from `/usr/share/zoneinfo` or the `tzdata` package) to resolve timezone names like 'Europe/Paris'.

import datetime
from backports.zoneinfo import ZoneInfo

# Ensure you have timezone data on your system (e.g., via 'pip install tzdata' or system package)

try:
    paris_tz = ZoneInfo("Europe/Paris")
    now_utc = datetime.datetime.now(datetime.timezone.utc)
    now_paris = now_utc.astimezone(paris_tz)
    print(f"UTC time: {now_utc.isoformat()}")
    print(f"Paris time: {now_paris.isoformat()}")
except Exception as e:
    print(f"Error: {e}. Do you have timezone data installed? (e.g. `pip install tzdata`)")

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