xref: /openbsd/lib/libc/gen/time.3 (revision e5dd7070)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: time.3,v 1.16 2015/01/29 01:46:30 schwarze Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993
4.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
5.\"
6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information
8.\" Processing Systems.
9.\"
10.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
11.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
12.\" are met:
13.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
15.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
16.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
17.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
18.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
19.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
20.\"    without specific prior written permission.
21.\"
22.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
23.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
24.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
25.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
26.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
27.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
28.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
29.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
30.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
31.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
32.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
33.\"
34.Dd $Mdocdate: January 29 2015 $
35.Dt TIME 3
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm time
39.Nd get time of day
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In time.h
42.Ft time_t
43.Fn time "time_t *tloc"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45The
46.Fn time
47function returns the value of time in seconds since 0 hours, 0 minutes,
480 seconds, January 1, 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
49.Pp
50A copy of the time value may be saved to the area indicated by the
51pointer
52.Fa tloc .
53If
54.Fa tloc
55is a null pointer, no value is stored.
56.Sh RETURN VALUES
57Upon successful completion,
58.Fn time
59returns the value of time.
60Otherwise a value of
61.Po Fa time_t Pc Ns -1
62is returned and the global variable
63.Va errno
64is set to indicate the error.
65.Sh ERRORS
66The following error codes may be set in
67.Va errno :
68.Bl -tag -width Er
69.It Bq Er EFAULT
70An argument address referenced invalid memory.
71.El
72.Sh SEE ALSO
73.Xr clock_gettime 2 ,
74.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
75.Xr ctime 3
76.Sh HISTORY
77A
78.Fn time
79system call first appeared in
80.At v1
81and used to return time in sixtieths of a second in 32 bits,
82which was to guarantee a crisis every 2.26 years.
83Since
84.At v6 ,
85.Fn time
86scale was changed to seconds, extending the pre-crisis stagnation
87period up to a total of 68 years.
88