parsedate(3) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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PARSEDATE(3)            NetBSD Library Functions Manual           PARSEDATE(3)


NAME

     parsedate -- date parsing function


LIBRARY

     System Utilities Library (libutil, -lutil)


SYNOPSIS

     #include <util.h>

     time_t
     parsedate(const char *datestr, const time_t *time, const int *tzoff);


DESCRIPTION

     The parsedate() function parses a datetime from datestr described in
     English relative to an optional time point, and an optional timezone off-
     set (in minutes behind/west of UTC) specified in tzoff.  If time is NULL
     then the current time is used.  If tzoff is NULL, then the current time
     zone is used.

     The datestr is a sequence of white-space separated items.  The white-
     space is optional the concatenated items are not ambiguous.  An empty
     datestr is equivalent to midnight today (the beginning of this day).

     The following words have the indicated numeric meanings: last = -1, this
     = 0, first, next, or one = 1, second is unused so that it is not confused
     with ``seconds'', two = 2, third or three = 3, fourth or four = 4, fifth
     or five = 5, sixth or six = 6, seventh or seven = 7, eighth or eight = 8,
     ninth or nine = 9, tenth or ten = 10, eleventh or eleven = 11, twelfth or
     twelve = 12.

     The following words are recognized in English only: AM, PM, a.m., p.m.

     The months: january, february, march, april, may, june, july, august,
     september, sept, october, november, december,

     The days of the week: sunday, monday, tuesday, tues, wednesday, wednes,
     thursday, thur, thurs, friday, saturday.

     Time units: year, month, fortnight, week, day, hour, minute, min, second,
     sec, tomorrow, yesterday.

     Timezone names: gmt, ut, utc, wet, bst, wat, at, ast, adt, est, edt, cst,
     cdt, mst, mdt, pst, pdt, yst, ydt, hst, hdt, cat, ahst, nt, idlw, cet,
     met, mewt, mest, swt, sst, fwt, fst, eet, bt, zp4, zp5, zp6, wast, wadt,
     cct, jst, east, eadt, gst, nzt, nzst, nzdt, idle.

     A variety of unambiguous dates are recognized:
     9/10/69      For years between 69-99 we assume 1900+ and for years
                  between 0-68 we assume 2000+.
     2006-11-17   An ISO-8601 date.
     69-09-10     The year in an ISO-8601 date is always taken literally, so
                  this is the year 69, not 2069.
     10/1/2000    October 10, 2000; the common US format.
     20 Jun 1994
     23jun2001
     1-sep-06     Other common abbreviations.
     1/11         The year can be omitted.  This is the US month/day format.

     As well as times:
     10:01
     10:12pm
     12:11:01.000012
     12:21-0500

     Relative items are also supported:
     -1 month
     last friday
     one week ago
     this thursday
     next sunday
     +2 years

     Seconds since epoch (also known as UNIX time) are also supported:
     @735275209  Tue Apr 20 03:06:49 UTC 1993


RETURN VALUES

     parsedate() returns the number of seconds passed since the Epoch, or -1
     if the date could not be parsed properly.  A non-error result of -1 can
     be distinguished from an error by setting errno to 0 before calling
     parsedate(), and checking the value of errno afterwards.


SEE ALSO

     date(1), errno(2), eeprom(8)


HISTORY

     The parser used in parsedate() was originally written by Steven M.
     Bellovin while at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  It
     was later tweaked by a couple of people on Usenet.  Completely overhauled
     by Rich $alz and Jim Berets in August, 1990.

     The parsedate() function first appeared in NetBSD 4.0.


BUGS

     1
       The parsedate() function is not re-entrant or thread-safe.
     2
       The parsedate() function cannot compute days before the unix epoch
       (19700101).
     3
       The parsedate() function assumes years less than 0 mean - year, years
       less than 70 mean 2000 + year, years less than 100 mean 1900 + year.

NetBSD 7.0.2                    October 8, 2014                   NetBSD 7.0.2