time(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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TIME(3)                 NetBSD Library Functions Manual                TIME(3)


NAME
time -- get time of day
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <time.h> time_t time(time_t *tloc);
DESCRIPTION
The time() function returns the value of time in seconds since 0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds, January 1, 1970, Coordinated Universal Time. A copy of the time value may be saved to the area indicated by the pointer tloc. If tloc is a NULL pointer, no value is stored. Upon successful completion, time() returns the value of time. Otherwise a value of ((time_t) -1) is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
No errors are defined.
SEE ALSO
gettimeofday(2), ctime(3)
STANDARDS
The time() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').
HISTORY
A time() function appeared in Version 2 AT&T UNIX. It returned a 32-bit value measuring sixtieths of a second, leading to rollover every 2.26 years. In Version 6 AT&T UNIX, the precision of time() was changed to seconds, allowing 135.6 years between rollovers. In NetBSD 6.0 the time_t type was changed to be 64 bits wide, including on 32-bit machines, making rollover a concern for the far distant future only. Note however that any code making the incorrect assumption that time_t is the same as long will fail on 32-bit machines in 2038. NetBSD 9.3 November 5, 2011 NetBSD 9.3
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