time(2) - c7

1TIME(2)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   TIME(2)
2
3
4

NAME

6       time - get time in seconds
7

SYNOPSIS

9       #include <time.h>
10
11       time_t time(time_t *t);
12

DESCRIPTION

14       time()  returns  the  time  as  the  number of seconds since the Epoch,
15       1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC).
16
17       If t is non-NULL, the return value is also stored in the memory pointed
18       to by t.
19

RETURN VALUE

21       On  success,  the value of time in seconds since the Epoch is returned.
22       On error, ((time_t) -1) is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
23

ERRORS

25       EFAULT t points outside your accessible address space.
26

CONFORMING TO

28       SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89, C99, POSIX.1-2001.  POSIX does not specify any error
29       conditions.
30

NOTES

32       POSIX.1  defines  seconds since the Epoch using a formula that approxi‐
33       mates the number of seconds between a specified  time  and  the  Epoch.
34       This  formula takes account of the facts that all years that are evenly
35       divisible by 4 are leap years, but years that are evenly  divisible  by
36       100 are not leap years unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in
37       which case they are leap years.  This value is  not  the  same  as  the
38       actual  number  of  seconds  between the time and the Epoch, because of
39       leap seconds and because system clocks are not required to be  synchro‐
40       nized  to  a standard reference.  The intention is that the interpreta‐
41       tion of seconds since the Epoch values be consistent; see  POSIX.1-2008
42       Rationale A.4.15 for further rationale.
43

COLOPHON

48       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
49       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
50       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
51
52
53
54Linux                             2011-09-09                           TIME(2)