- if (!strcmp(format, "relative"))
- mode->type = DATE_RELATIVE;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "iso8601") ||
- !strcmp(format, "iso"))
- mode->type = DATE_ISO8601;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "iso8601-strict") ||
- !strcmp(format, "iso-strict"))
- mode->type = DATE_ISO8601_STRICT;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "rfc2822") ||
- !strcmp(format, "rfc"))
- mode->type = DATE_RFC2822;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "short"))
- mode->type = DATE_SHORT;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "local"))
- mode->type = DATE_LOCAL;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "default"))
- mode->type = DATE_NORMAL;
- else if (!strcmp(format, "raw"))
- mode->type = DATE_RAW;
- else if (skip_prefix(format, "format:", &format)) {
- mode->type = DATE_STRFTIME;
- mode->strftime_fmt = xstrdup(format);
- } else
+ const char *p;
+
+ /* historical alias */
+ if (!strcmp(format, "local"))
+ format = "default-local";
+
+ mode->type = parse_date_type(format, &p);
+ mode->local = 0;
+
+ if (skip_prefix(p, "-local", &p))
+ mode->local = 1;
+
+ if (mode->type == DATE_STRFTIME) {
+ if (!skip_prefix(p, ":", &p))
+ die("date format missing colon separator: %s", format);
+ mode->strftime_fmt = xstrdup(p);
+ } else if (*p)