xref: /netbsd/share/man/man9/inittodr.9 (revision bf9ec67e)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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35.Dd November 13, 1995
36.Dt INITTODR 9
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm inittodr
40.Nd initialize system time
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Ft void
43.Fn inittodr "time_t base"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn inittodr
47function determines the time and sets the system clock.
48It tries to pick the correct time using a set of heuristics that examine
49the system's battery backed clock and the time reported by the file
50system, as given in
51.Fa base .
52Those heuristics include:
53.Bl -bullet
54.It
55If the battery-backed clock has a valid time, it is used.
56.It
57If the battery-backed clock does not have a valid time, and
58the time provided in
59.Fa base
60is within reason,
61.Fa base
62is used as the current time.
63.It
64If the battery-backed clock appears invalid, and
65.Fa base
66appears non-sensical or was not provided (was given as zero),
67a arbitrary base (typically some time in the late 1970s)
68will be used.
69.El
70.Pp
71Once a system time has been determined, it is stored in the
72.Va time
73variable.
74.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
75The
76.Fn inittodr
77function prints diagnostic messages if it has trouble figuring
78out the system time.  Conditions that can cause diagnostic
79messages to be printed include:
80.Bl -bullet
81.It
82The battery-backed clock's time appears nonsensical.
83.It
84The
85.Fa base
86time appears nonsensical.
87.It
88The
89.Fa base
90time and the battery-backed clock's time differ by a large amount.
91.El
92.Sh SEE ALSO
93.Xr resettodr 9 ,
94.Xr time 9
95.Sh BUGS
96On many systems,
97.Fn inittodr
98has to convert from
99a time expressed in terms of year, month, day, hours, minutes,
100and seconds to
101.Va time ,
102expressed in seconds.  Many of the implementations could share code,
103but do not.
104.Pp
105Each system's heuristics for picking the correct time are slightly
106different.
107