1TIME(2)                    Linux Programmer's Manual                   TIME(2)
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NAME

6       time - get time in seconds
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <time.h>
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11       time_t time(time_t *tloc);
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DESCRIPTION

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

25       EFAULT tloc points outside  your  accessible  address  space  (but  see
26              BUGS).
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28              On  systems  where the C library time() wrapper function invokes
29              an implementation provided by the vdso(7) (so that there  is  no
30              trap  into the kernel), an invalid address may instead trigger a
31              SIGSEGV signal.
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CONFORMING TO

34       SVr4, 4.3BSD, C89, C99, POSIX.1-2001.  POSIX does not specify any error
35       conditions.
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NOTES

38       POSIX.1  defines  seconds since the Epoch using a formula that approxi‐
39       mates the number of seconds between a specified  time  and  the  Epoch.
40       This  formula takes account of the facts that all years that are evenly
41       divisible by 4 are leap years, but years that are evenly  divisible  by
42       100 are not leap years unless they are also evenly divisible by 400, in
43       which case they are leap years.  This value is  not  the  same  as  the
44       actual  number  of  seconds  between the time and the Epoch, because of
45       leap seconds and because system clocks are not required to be  synchro‐
46       nized  to  a standard reference.  The intention is that the interpreta‐
47       tion of seconds since the Epoch values be consistent; see  POSIX.1-2008
48       Rationale A.4.15 for further rationale.
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50       On Linux, a call to time() with tloc specified as NULL cannot fail with
51       the error EOVERFLOW, even on ABIs where time_t is a signed 32-bit inte‐
52       ger  and  the clock ticks past the time 2**31 (2038-01-19 03:14:08 UTC,
53       ignoring leap seconds).  (POSIX.1 permits, but does  not  require,  the
54       EOVERFLOW  error in the case where the seconds since the Epoch will not
55       fit in time_t.)  Instead, the behavior on Linux is undefined  when  the
56       system  time  is out of the time_t range.  Applications intended to run
57       after 2038 should use ABIs with time_t wider than 32 bits.
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BUGS

60       Error returns from this system call are indistinguishable from success‐
61       ful  reports  that the time is a few seconds before the Epoch, so the C
62       library wrapper function never sets errno as a result of this call.
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64       The tloc argument is obsolescent and should always be NULL in new code.
65       When tloc is NULL, the call cannot fail.
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67   C library/kernel differences
68       On  some  architectures, an implementation of time() is provided in the
69       vdso(7).
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SEE ALSO

72       date(1), gettimeofday(2), ctime(3), ftime(3), time(7), vdso(7)
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COLOPHON

75       This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
76       description  of  the project, information about reporting bugs, and the
77       latest    version    of    this    page,    can     be     found     at
78       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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82Linux                             2017-09-15                           TIME(2)
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