TIME

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 1997-09-09
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NAME

time - get time in seconds

SYNOPSIS

#include <time.h>

time_t time(time_t *t);

DESCRIPTION

time returns the time since the Epoch (00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970), measured in seconds.

If t is non-NULL, the return value is also stored in the memory pointed to by t.

RETURN VALUE

On success, the value of time in seconds since the Epoch is returned. On error, ((time_t)-1) is returned, and errno is set appropriately.

ERRORS

EFAULT: t points outside your accessible address space.

NOTES

POSIX.1 defines seconds since the Epoch as a value to be interpreted as the number of seconds between a specified time and the Epoch, according to a formula for conversion from UTC equivalent to conversion on the naïve basis that leap seconds are ignored and all years divisible by 4 are leap years. This value is not the same as the actual number of seconds between the time and the Epoch, because of leap seconds and because clocks are not required to be synchronised to a standard reference. The intention is that the interpretation of seconds since the Epoch values be consistent; see POSIX.1 Annex B 2.2.2 for further rationale.

CONFORMING TO

SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3
Under BSD 4.3, this call is obsoleted by gettimeofday(2). POSIX does not specify any error conditions.

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