CTIME

Section: C Library Functions (3)
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BSD mandoc
BSD 4.3  

NAME

asctime ctime difftime gmtime localtime mktime - transform binary date and time value to ASCII  

SYNOPSIS

Fd #include <sys/types.h> Vt extern char *tzname[2]; Ft char * Fn ctime const time_t *clock Ft double Fn difftime time_t time1 time_t time0 Fd #include <time.h> Ft char * Fn asctime const struct tm *tm Ft struct tm * Fn localtime const time_t *clock Ft struct tm * Fn gmtime const time_t *clock Ft time_t Fn mktime struct tm *tm  

DESCRIPTION

The functions Fn ctime , Fn gmtime and Fn localtime all take as an argument a time value representing the time in seconds since the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC January 1, 1970; see time(3)).

The function Fn localtime converts the time value pointed at by Fa clock , and returns a pointer to a ``Fa struct tm '' (described below) which contains the broken-out time information for the value after adjusting for the current time zone (and any other factors such as Daylight Saving Time). Time zone adjustments are performed as specified by the TZ environmental variable (see tzset(3)). The function Fn localtime uses tzset to initialize time conversion information if tzset has not already been called by the process.

After filling in the tm structure, Fn localtime sets the Fa tm_isdst Ns 'th element of Fa tzname to a pointer to an ASCII string that's the time zone abbreviation to be used with Fn localtime Ns 's return value.

The function Fn gmtime similarly converts the time value, but without any time zone adjustment, and returns a pointer to a tm structure (described below).

The Fn ctime function adjusts the time value for the current time zone in the same manner as Fn localtime , and returns a pointer to a 26-character string of the form:

Thu Nov 24 18:22:48 1986\n\0

All the fields have constant width.

The Fn asctime function converts the broken down time in the structure Fa tm pointed at by Fa *tm to the form shown in the example above.

The function Fn mktime converts the broken-down time, expressed as local time, in the structure pointed to by tm into a time value with the same encoding as that of the values returned by the time(3) function, that is, seconds from the Epoch, UTC

The original values of the Fa tm_wday and Fa tm_yday components of the structure are ignored, and the original values of the other components are not restricted to their normal ranges. (A positive or zero value for Fa tm_isdst causes Fn mktime to presume initially that summer time (for example, Daylight Saving Time) is or is not in effect for the specified time, respectively. A negative value for Fa tm_isdst causes the Fn mktime function to attempt to divine whether summer time is in effect for the specified time.)

On successful completion, the values of the Fa tm_wday and Fa tm_yday components of the structure are set appropriately, and the other components are set to represent the specified calendar time, but with their values forced to their normal ranges; the final value of Fa tm_mday is not set until Fa tm_mon and Fa tm_year are determined. Fn Mktime returns the specified calendar time; if the calendar time cannot be represented, it returns -1;

The Fn difftime function returns the difference between two calendar times, ( Fa time1 - Fa time0 ) , expressed in seconds.

External declarations as well as the tm structure definition are in the Aq Pa time.h include file. The tm structure includes at least the following fields:

int tm_sec;     /* seconds (0 - 60) */
int tm_min;     /* minutes (0 - 59) */
int tm_hour;    /* hours (0 - 23) */
int tm_mday;    /* day of month (1 - 31) */
int tm_mon;     /* month of year (0 - 11) */
int tm_year;    /* year - 1900 */
int tm_wday;    /* day of week (Sunday = 0) */
int tm_yday;    /* day of year (0 - 365) */
int tm_isdst;   /* is summer time in effect? */
char *tm_zone;  /* abbreviation of timezone name */
long tm_gmtoff; /* offset from UTC in seconds */

The field Fa tm_isdst is non-zero if summer time is in effect.

The field Fa tm_gmtoff is the offset (in seconds) of the time represented from UTC with positive values indicating east of the Prime Meridian.  

SEE ALSO

date(1), gettimeofday(2), getenv(3), time(3), tzset(3), tzfile(5)  

HISTORY

This manual page is derived from the time package contributed to Berkeley by Arthur Olsen and which appeared in BSD 4.3  

BUGS

Except for Fn difftime and Fn mktime , these functions leaves their result in an internal static object and return a pointer to that object. Subsequent calls to these function will modify the same object.

The Fa tm_zone field of a returned tm structure points to a static array of characters, which will also be overwritten by any subsequent calls (as well as by subsequent calls to tzset(3) and tzsetwall(3)).

Use of the external variable Fa tzname is discouraged; the Fa tm_zone entry in the tm structure is preferred.

Avoid using out-of-range values with Fn mktime when setting up lunch with promptness sticklers in Riyadh.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
BUGS

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