CTIME(3)                    BSD Programmer's Manual                   CTIME(3)

NAME
     asctime, ctime, difftime, gmtime, localtime, mktime - transform binary
     date and time value to ASCII

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>

     extern char *tzname[2];

     char *
     ctime(const timet *clock)

     double
     difftime(timet time1, timet time0)

     #include <time.h>

     char *
     asctime(const struct tm *tm)

     struct tm *
     localtime(const timet *clock)

     struct tm *
     gmtime(const timet *clock)

     timet
     mktime(struct tm *tm)

DESCRIPTION
     The functions ctime(), gmtime() and localtime() all take as an argument a
     time value representing the time in seconds since the Epoch (00:00:00
     UTC, January 1, 1970; see time(3)).

     The function localtime() converts the time value pointed at by clock, 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 TZ environmental vari-
     able (see tzset(3)).  The function localtime() uses tzset to initialize
     time conversion information if tzset has not already been called by the
     process.

     After filling in the tm structure, localtime() sets the tmisdst'th ele-
     ment of tzname to a pointer to an ASCII string that's the time zone ab-
     breviation to be used with localtime()'s return value.

     The function gmtime() similarly converts the time value, but without any
     time zone adjustment, and returns a pointer to a tm structure (described
     below).

     The ctime() function adjusts the time value for the current time zone in
     the same manner as localtime(), and returns a pointer to a 26-character
     string of the form:

           Thu Nov 24 18:22:48 1986\n\0

     All the fields have constant width.

     The asctime() function converts the broken down time in the structure tm
     pointed at by *tm to the form shown in the example above.


     The function mktime() 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 values returned by the time(3) function, that is,
     seconds from the Epoch, UTC.

     The original values of the tmwday and tmyday components of the struc-
     ture are ignored, and the original values of the other components are not
     restricted to their normal ranges.  (A positive or zero value for
     tmisdst causes mktime() to presume initially that summer time (for exam-
     ple, Daylight Saving Time) is or is not in effect for the specified time,
     respectively.  A negative value for tmisdst causes the mktime() function
     to attempt to divine whether summer time is in effect for the specified
     time.)

     On successful completion, the values of the tmwday and tmyday compo-
     nents 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 tmmday is not set un-
     til tmmon and tmyear are determined.  Mktime() returns the specified
     calendar time; if the calendar time cannot be represented, it returns -1;

     The difftime() function returns the difference between two calendar
     times, (time1 - time0), expressed in seconds.

     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:

           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 */

     The field tmisdst is non-zero if summer time is in effect.

     The field tmgmtoff is the offset (in seconds) of the time represented
     from UTC, with positive values indicating east of the Prime Meridian.

SEE ALSO
     date(1),  gettimeofday(2),  getenv(3),  time(3),  tzset(3),  tzfile(5)

HISTORY
     This manual page is derived from the time package contributed to Berkeley
     by Arthur Olsen and which appeared in 4.3BSD.

BUGS
     Except for difftime() and mktime(), these functions leaves their result
     in an internal static object and return a pointer to that object. Subse-
     quent calls to these function will modify the same object.

     The tmzone 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 subsequent calls to tzset(3) and tzsetwall(3)).

     Use of the external variable tzname is discouraged; the tmzone entry in
     the tm structure is preferred.

     Avoid using out-of-range values with mktime() when setting up lunch with
     promptness sticklers in Riyadh.