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 6.1.2                   November 5, 2011                   NetBSD 6.1.2