xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/time/strftime.3 (revision a6445c1d)
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32.\"     from: @(#)strftime.3    5.12 (Berkeley) 6/29/91
33.\"	$OpenBSD: strftime.3,v 1.33 2014/09/08 01:27:54 schwarze Exp $
34.\"
35.Dd $Mdocdate: September 8 2014 $
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
50into the buffer
51.Fa buf
52according to the string pointed to by
53.Fa format .
54.Pp
55The
56.Fa format
57string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and
58ordinary characters.
59All ordinary characters are copied directly into the buffer.
60A conversion specification consists of a percent sign
61.Ql %
62and one other character.
63.Pp
64No more than
65.Fa maxsize
66characters will be placed into the array.
67If the total number of resulting characters, including the terminating
68NUL character, is not more than
69.Fa maxsize ,
70.Fn strftime
71returns the number of characters placed in the array, not counting the
72terminating NUL.
73Otherwise, zero is returned.
74.Pp
75Each conversion specification is replaced by the characters as
76follows which are then copied into the buffer.
77.Bl -tag -width "xxxx"
78.It Cm \&%A
79is replaced by the locale's full weekday name.
80.It Cm \&%a
81is replaced by the locale's abbreviated weekday name.
82.It Cm \&%B
83is replaced by the locale's full month name.
84.It Cm \&%b No or Cm \&%h
85is replaced by the locale's abbreviated month name.
86.It Cm \&%C
87is replaced by the century (a year divided by 100 and truncated to an integer)
88as a decimal number (00\-99).
89.It Cm \&%c
90is replaced by the locale's appropriate date and time representation.
91.It Cm \&%D
92is replaced by the date in the format
93.Dq Li %m/%d/%y .
94.It Cm \&%d
95is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01\-31).
96.It Cm \&%e
97is replaced by the day of month as a decimal number (1\-31);
98single digits are preceded by a blank.
99.It Cm \&%F
100is replaced by the date in the format
101.Dq Li %Y-%m-%d .
102.It Cm \&%G
103is replaced by the
104.St -iso8601
105year with century as a decimal number.
106.It Cm \&%g
107is replaced by the
108.St -iso8601
109year without century as a decimal number (00\-99).
110.It Cm \&%H
111is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00\-23).
112.It Cm \&%I
113is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01\-12).
114.It Cm \&%j
115is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001\-366).
116.It Cm \&%k
117is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0\-23);
118single digits are preceded by a blank.
119.It Cm \&%l
120is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1\-12);
121single digits are preceded by a blank.
122.It Cm \&%M
123is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00\-59).
124.It Cm %m
125is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01\-12).
126.It Cm %n
127is replaced by a newline.
128.It Cm %p
129is replaced by the locale's equivalent of either
130.Dq Tn AM
131or
132.Dq Tn PM .
133.It Cm \&%R
134is replaced by the time in the format
135.Dq Li %H:%M .
136.It Cm \&%r
137is replaced by the locale's representation of 12-hour clock time
138using AM/PM notation.
139.It Cm \&%S
140is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00\-60).
141The range of
142seconds is (00\-60) instead of (00\-59) to allow for the periodic occurrence
143of leap seconds.
144.It Cm %s
145is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UTC (see
146.Xr mktime 3 ) .
147.It Cm \&%T
148is replaced by the time in the format
149.Dq Li %H:%M:%S .
150.It Cm \&%t
151is replaced by a tab.
152.It Cm \&%U
153is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of
154the week) as a decimal number (00\-53).
155.It Cm \&%u
156is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week)
157as a decimal number (1\-7).
158.It Cm \&%V
159is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
160the week) as a decimal number (01\-53).
161If the week containing January
1621 has four or more days in the new year, then it is week 1; otherwise
163it is week 53 of the previous year, and the next week is week 1.
164.It Cm \&%v
165is replaced by the date in the format
166.Dq Li "%e-%b-%Y" .
167.It Cm \&%W
168is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
169the week) as a decimal number (00\-53).
170.It Cm \&%w
171is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week)
172as a decimal number (0\-6).
173.It Cm \&%X
174is replaced by the locale's appropriate time representation.
175.It Cm \&%x
176is replaced by the locale's appropriate date representation.
177.It Cm \&%Y
178is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
179.It Cm \&%y
180is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00\-99).
181.It Cm \&%Z
182is replaced by the time zone name,
183or by the empty string if this is not determinable.
184.It Cm \&%z
185is replaced by the offset from UTC in the format
186.Dq Li +HHMM
187or
188.Dq Li -HHMM
189as appropriate, with positive values representing locations east
190of Greenwich, or by the empty string if this is not determinable.
191.It Cm %%
192is replaced by
193.Ql % .
194.It Cm %+
195is replaced by the date and time in
196.Xr date 1
197format.
198.El
199.Sh SEE ALSO
200.Xr date 1 ,
201.Xr printf 1 ,
202.Xr ctime 3 ,
203.Xr getenv 3 ,
204.Xr printf 3 ,
205.Xr strptime 3 ,
206.Xr time 3 ,
207.Xr tzset 3 ,
208.Xr tzfile 5
209.Sh STANDARDS
210The
211.Fn strftime
212function
213conforms to
214.St -isoC-99 ,
215except that the
216.Ql E
217and
218.Ql O
219conversion modifiers are ignored by this implementation.
220.Pp
221The
222.Ql \&%k ,
223.Ql \&%l ,
224.Ql \&%s ,
225.Ql \&%v ,
226and
227.Ql \&%+
228conversion specifications are extensions.
229.Pp
230Use of the
231.St -iso8601
232conversions may produce non-intuitive results.
233Week 01 of a year is per definition the first week which has the Thursday
234in this year, which is equivalent to the week which contains the fourth
235day of January.
236In other words, the first week of a new year is the week which has the
237majority of its days in the new year.
238Week 01 might also contain days from the previous year and the week
239before week 01 of a year is the last week (52 or 53) of the previous
240year even if it contains days from the new year.
241A week starts with Monday (day 1) and ends with Sunday (day 7).
242For example, the first week of the year 1997 lasts from
2431996-12-30 to 1997-01-05.
244.Sh HISTORY
245A predecessor to
246.Fn strftime ,
247.Fn ptime ,
248first appeared in
249.At v1 .
250The
251.Fn strftime
252function has been available since
253.Bx 4.3 Reno .
254.Sh AUTHORS
255.An Keith Bostic
256implemented the
257.Bx
258version of
259.Fn strftime
260in 1989.
261.Sh BUGS
262There is no conversion specification for the phase of the moon.
263.Pp
264Note that while this implementation of
265.Fn strftime
266will always NUL terminate
267.Fa buf ,
268other implementations may not do so when
269.Fa maxsize
270is not large enough to store the entire time string.
271The contents of
272.Fa buf
273are implementation specific in this case.
274