TIME(3) | Library Functions Manual | TIME(3) |
time
—
#include <time.h>
time_t
time
(time_t
*tloc);
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.
time
() function conforms to IEEE
Std 1003.1-1990 (“POSIX.1”).
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.
November 5, 2011 | NetBSD 9.0 |