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iCalendar: How to exclude a time range from a RRULE?

I would like to exclude a time range from a RRULE.

For example the RRULE:

DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20210104T142711Z
RRULE:FREQ=HOURLY;INTERVAL=2

will create a recurrent event every two hours, but I would like to exclude a period of time during the night, for example from 22:00 to 6:00.

I have read how to exclude dates using the EXDATE property, but I have not found information in the RFC about how to exclude a period of time. Is this documented somewhere or is there a recommended way of doing this?

Solution

  • I suggest try

    RRULE:FREQ=DAILY;BYHOUR=6,8,10,12,14,16,18,20

    and test in all the applications you expect to deal with this. Some calendar applications don't do FREQ=HOURLY. EG:Last I looked, google didn't do FREQ=HOURLY. I don't know about BYHOUR. Test whether the applications will do BYHOUR?

    This https://icalendar.org/iCalendar-RFC-5545/3-3-10-recurrence-rule.html explains the limiting or expanding of the number of recurrences.

    If those are not accepted by your intended receiving applications, then another approach may be to generate multiple VEVENTS for each hour, all using FREQ=DAILY.