xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/time/strftime.3 (revision 9b7c3dbb)
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32.\"     from: @(#)strftime.3    5.12 (Berkeley) 6/29/91
33.\"	$OpenBSD: strftime.3,v 1.36 2016/02/08 20:29:11 jmc Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd $Mdocdate: February 8 2016 $
36.Dt STRFTIME 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm strftime
40.Nd format date and time
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.In time.h
43.Ft size_t
44.Fn strftime "char *buf" "size_t maxsize" "const char *format" "const struct tm *timeptr"
45.Sh DESCRIPTION
46The
47.Fn strftime
48function formats the information from
49.Fa timeptr
50(as described in
51.Xr mktime 3 )
52into the buffer
53.Fa buf
54according to the string pointed to by
55.Fa format .
56.Pp
57The
58.Fa format
59string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and
60ordinary characters.
61All ordinary characters are copied directly into the buffer.
62A conversion specification consists of a percent sign
63.Ql %
64and one other character.
65.Pp
66No more than
67.Fa maxsize
68characters will be placed into the array.
69.Pp
70Each conversion specification is replaced by the characters as
71follows which are then copied into the buffer.
72.Bl -tag -width "xxxx"
73.It Cm \&%A
74is replaced by the locale's full weekday name.
75.It Cm \&%a
76is replaced by the locale's abbreviated weekday name.
77.It Cm \&%B
78is replaced by the locale's full month name.
79.It Cm \&%b No or Cm \&%h
80is replaced by the locale's abbreviated month name.
81.It Cm \&%C
82is replaced by the century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer)
83as a decimal number (00\-99).
84.It Cm \&%c
85is replaced by the locale's appropriate date and time representation.
86.It Cm \&%D
87is replaced by the date in the format
88.Dq Li %m/%d/%y .
89.It Cm \&%d
90is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01\-31).
91.It Cm \&%e
92is replaced by the day of month as a decimal number (1\-31);
93single digits are preceded by a blank.
94.It Cm \&%F
95is replaced by the date in the format
96.Dq Li %Y-%m-%d .
97.It Cm \&%G
98is replaced by the
99.St -iso8601
100year with century as a decimal number.
101.It Cm \&%g
102is replaced by the
103.St -iso8601
104year without century as a decimal number (00\-99).
105.It Cm \&%H
106is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00\-23).
107.It Cm \&%I
108is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01\-12).
109.It Cm \&%j
110is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001\-366).
111.It Cm \&%k
112is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0\-23);
113single digits are preceded by a blank.
114.It Cm \&%l
115is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1\-12);
116single digits are preceded by a blank.
117.It Cm \&%M
118is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00\-59).
119.It Cm %m
120is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01\-12).
121.It Cm %n
122is replaced by a newline.
123.It Cm %p
124is replaced by the locale's equivalent of either
125.Dq AM
126or
127.Dq PM .
128.It Cm \&%R
129is replaced by the time in the format
130.Dq Li %H:%M .
131.It Cm \&%r
132is replaced by the locale's representation of 12-hour clock time
133using AM/PM notation.
134.It Cm \&%S
135is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00\-60).
136The range of
137seconds is (00\-60) instead of (00\-59) to allow for the periodic occurrence
138of leap seconds.
139.It Cm %s
140is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UTC (see
141.Xr mktime 3 ) .
142.It Cm \&%T
143is replaced by the time in the format
144.Dq Li %H:%M:%S .
145.It Cm \&%t
146is replaced by a tab.
147.It Cm \&%U
148is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of
149the week) as a decimal number (00\-53).
150.It Cm \&%u
151is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week)
152as a decimal number (1\-7).
153.It Cm \&%V
154is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
155the week) as a decimal number (01\-53).
156If the week containing January
1571 has four or more days in the new year, then it is week 1; otherwise
158it is week 53 of the previous year, and the next week is week 1.
159.It Cm \&%v
160is replaced by the date in the format
161.Dq Li "%e-%b-%Y" .
162.It Cm \&%W
163is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
164the week) as a decimal number (00\-53).
165.It Cm \&%w
166is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week)
167as a decimal number (0\-6).
168.It Cm \&%X
169is replaced by the locale's appropriate time representation.
170.It Cm \&%x
171is replaced by the locale's appropriate date representation.
172.It Cm \&%Y
173is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
174.It Cm \&%y
175is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00\-99).
176.It Cm \&%Z
177is replaced by the time zone name,
178or by the empty string if this is not determinable.
179.It Cm \&%z
180is replaced by the offset from UTC in the format
181.Dq Li +HHMM
182or
183.Dq Li -HHMM
184as appropriate, with positive values representing locations east
185of Greenwich, or by the empty string if this is not determinable.
186.It Cm %%
187is replaced by
188.Ql % .
189.It Cm %+
190is replaced by the date and time in
191.Xr date 1
192format.
193.El
194.Sh RETURN VALUES
195If the total number of resulting characters, including the terminating
196NUL character, is not more than
197.Fa maxsize ,
198.Fn strftime
199returns the number of characters placed in the array, not counting the
200terminating NUL.
201Otherwise, zero is returned.
202.Sh SEE ALSO
203.Xr date 1 ,
204.Xr printf 1 ,
205.Xr ctime 3 ,
206.Xr getenv 3 ,
207.Xr printf 3 ,
208.Xr strptime 3 ,
209.Xr time 3 ,
210.Xr tzset 3 ,
211.Xr tzfile 5
212.Sh STANDARDS
213The
214.Fn strftime
215function
216conforms to
217.St -isoC-99 ,
218except that the
219.Ql E
220and
221.Ql O
222conversion modifiers are ignored by this implementation.
223.Pp
224The
225.Ql \&%k ,
226.Ql \&%l ,
227.Ql \&%s ,
228.Ql \&%v ,
229and
230.Ql \&%+
231conversion specifications are extensions.
232.Pp
233Use of the
234.St -iso8601
235conversions may produce non-intuitive results.
236Week 01 of a year is per definition the first week which has the Thursday
237in this year, which is equivalent to the week which contains the fourth
238day of January.
239In other words, the first week of a new year is the week which has the
240majority of its days in the new year.
241Week 01 might also contain days from the previous year and the week
242before week 01 of a year is the last week (52 or 53) of the previous
243year even if it contains days from the new year.
244A week starts with Monday (day 1) and ends with Sunday (day 7).
245For example, the first week of the year 1997 lasts from
2461996-12-30 to 1997-01-05.
247.Sh HISTORY
248A predecessor to
249.Fn strftime ,
250.Fn ptime ,
251first appeared in
252.At v1 .
253The
254.Fn strftime
255function has been available since
256.Bx 4.3 Reno .
257.Sh AUTHORS
258.An Keith Bostic
259implemented the
260.Bx
261version of
262.Fn strftime
263in 1989.
264.Sh BUGS
265There is no conversion specification for the phase of the moon.
266.Pp
267Note that while this implementation of
268.Fn strftime
269will always NUL terminate
270.Fa buf ,
271other implementations may not do so when
272.Fa maxsize
273is not large enough to store the entire time string.
274The contents of
275.Fa buf
276are implementation specific in this case.
277