.\" Copyright (c) 1989 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\" @(#)ctime.3 6.14 (Berkeley) %G%
asctime, ctime, difftime, gmtime, localtime, mktime \- convert date and time to ASCII
char *ctime(time_t *clock);
double difftime(time_t time1, time_t time0);
char *asctime(struct tm *tm);
struct tm *localtime(long *clock);
struct tm *gmtime(long *clock);
time_t mktime(struct tm *tm);
all take as an argument a time value representing the time in seconds since
the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970; see
converts the time value pointed at by
and returns a pointer to a ``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
environmental variable (see
to initialize time conversion information if
has not already been called by the process.
After filling in the tm structure,
to a pointer to an ASCII string that's the time zone abbreviation to be
similarly converts the time value, but without any time zone adjustment,
and returns a pointer to a tm structure (described below).
adjusts the time value for the current time zone in the same manner as
and returns a pointer to a 26-character string of the form:
Thu Nov 24 18:22:48 1986\en\e0
All the fields have constant width.
converts a time value contained in a tm structure to a 26-character
string, as shown in the above example, and returns a pointer to the string.
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
function, that is, seconds from the Epoch, UTC.
The original values of the
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
to presume initially that summer time (for example, Daylight Saving Time)
is or is not in effect for the specified time, respectively.
function to attempt to divine whether summer time is in effect for the
On successful completion, the values of the
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
returns the specified calendar time; if the calendar time cannot be
returns the difference between two calendar times,
External declarations as well as the tm structure definition are in the
``<time.h>'' include file.
The tm structure includes at least the following fields:
.ta .5i +\w'long tm_gmtoff;\0\0'u
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 \(**/
is non-zero if summer time is in effect.
is the offset (in seconds) of the time represented from UTC, with positive
values indicating east of the Prime Meridian.
date(1), gettimeofday(2), getenv(3), time(3), tzset(3), tzfile(5)
these routines all return pointers to static data whose content is
overwritten by each call.
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
Use of the external variable
entry in the tm structure is preferred.
Avoid using out-of-range values with
when setting up lunch with promptness sticklers in Riyadh.