.\" $OpenBSD: clock_gettime.2,v 1.32 2022/03/31 17:27:16 naddy Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. 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IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd $Mdocdate: March 31 2022 $ .Dt CLOCK_GETTIME 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm clock_gettime , .Nm clock_settime , .Nm clock_getres .Nd get or set the time .Sh SYNOPSIS .In time.h .Ft int .Fn clock_gettime "clockid_t clock" "struct timespec *now" .Ft int .Fn clock_settime "clockid_t clock" "const struct timespec *now" .Ft int .Fn clock_getres "clockid_t clock" "struct timespec *res" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn clock_gettime function reads the given .Fa clock and writes its absolute value to .Fa now . The .Fa clock may be a value returned by .Xr clock_getcpuclockid 3 or .Xr pthread_getcpuclockid 3 , or any of the following constants: .Bl -tag -width CLOCK_MONOTONIC .It Dv CLOCK_REALTIME The Coordinated Universal Time .Pq UTC clock. Its absolute value is the time elapsed since Jan 1 1970 00:00:00 UTC .Pq the Epoch . The clock normally advances continuously, though it may jump discontinuously if a process calls .Xr settimeofday 2 or .Fn clock_settime .Pq see below . .It Dv CLOCK_MONOTONIC The monotonic clock. Its absolute value is meaningless. The clock begins at an undefined positive point and advances continuously. .It Dv CLOCK_BOOTTIME The uptime clock. Its absolute value is the time elapsed since the system booted. The clock begins at zero and advances continuously. .It Dv CLOCK_UPTIME The runtime clock. Its absolute value is the time elapsed since the system booted less any time the system was suspended. The clock begins at zero and advances while the system is not suspended. .It Dv CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID The process CPU clock. Its absolute value begins at zero and advances while the calling process is running in user or kernel mode. .It Dv CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID The thread CPU clock. Its absolute value begins at zero and advances while the calling thread is running in user or kernel mode. .El .Pp The .Fn clock_settime function sets the given .Fa clock to the absolute value .Fa now . Only the .Dv CLOCK_REALTIME clock may be set and only the superuser may set it. If the system .Xr securelevel 7 is 2 or greater, the time may only be advanced. This limitation is imposed to prevent a malicious superuser from setting arbitrary timestamps on files. .Pp The .Fn clock_getres function retrieves the resolution of the given .Fa clock and writes it to .Fa res if .Fa res is .Pf non- Dv NULL . The .Fa clock may be any of the clocks accepted by .Fn clock_gettime as described earlier. .Pp The .Fa now and .Fa res arguments are .Dv timespec structures as defined in .In sys/time.h : .Bd -literal -offset indent struct timespec { time_t tv_sec; /* seconds */ long tv_nsec; /* and nanoseconds */ }; .Ed .Sh RETURN VALUES .Rv -std .Sh EXAMPLES Use the .Dv CLOCK_REALTIME clock to determine the time of day. Its absolute value can be passed to functions like .Xr gmtime 3 and .Xr strftime 3 to produce a human-readable string: .Bd -literal -offset indent char str[64]; struct timespec now; struct tm *tmbuf; clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &now); tmbuf = gmtime(&now.tv_sec); if (tmbuf == NULL) err(1, "gmtime"); if (strftime(str, sizeof(str), "%a %b %e %T %Y %Z", tmbuf) == 0) err(1, "strftime"); printf("%s (%lld.%09ld seconds since the Epoch)\\n", str, (long long)now.tv_sec, now.tv_nsec); .Ed .Pp Use the .Dv CLOCK_MONOTONIC clock to measure elapsed time. The .Xr timespecsub 3 function simplifies arithmetic operations on .Dv timespec structures: .Bd -literal -offset indent struct timespec elapsed, start, stop, timeout; timeout.tv_sec = 2; timeout.tv_nsec = 500000000; clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &start); nanosleep(&timeout, NULL); clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &stop); timespecsub(&stop, &start, &elapsed); printf("nanosleep: expected %lld.%09ld actual %lld.%09ld\\n", (long long)timeout.tv_sec, timeout.tv_nsec, (long long)elapsed.tv_sec, elapsed.tv_nsec); .Ed .Pp Use the .Dv CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID or .Dv CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID clocks to measure CPU time instead of elapsed time: .Bd -literal -offset indent struct timespec cputime, start, stop; volatile int i; clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &start); for (i = 0; i < INT_MAX; i++) continue; clock_gettime(CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID, &stop); timespecsub(&stop, &start, &cputime); printf("CPU time: %lld.%09lds\\n", (long long)cputime.tv_sec, cputime.tv_nsec); .Ed .Pp How much time has elapsed since the system booted? Has the system been suspended for any of that time? .Bd -literal -offset indent struct timespec diff, total, running; clock_gettime(CLOCK_BOOTTIME, &total); clock_gettime(CLOCK_UPTIME, &running); timespecsub(&total, &running, &diff); printf("Seconds since boot: %8lld.%09ld\\n", (long long)total.tv_sec, total.tv_nsec); printf("Seconds suspended: %8lld.%09ld\\n", (long long)diff.tv_sec, diff.tv_nsec); .Ed .Pp Set the .Dv CLOCK_REALTIME clock to Jan 1 00:00:00 2000 UTC: .Bd -literal -offset indent struct tm y2k; struct timespec ts; y2k.tm_year = 100; /* 2000 */ y2k.tm_mon = 0; /* January */ y2k.tm_mday = 1; y2k.tm_hour = 0; y2k.tm_min = 0; y2k.tm_sec = 0; ts.tv_nsec = 0; ts.tv_sec = timegm(&y2k); if (ts.tv_sec == -1) err(1, "timegm"); if (clock_settime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts) == -1) err(1, "clock_settime"); .Ed .Sh ERRORS .Fn clock_gettime , .Fn clock_settime , and .Fn clock_getres will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EINVAL The .Fa clock is invalid. .It Bq Er EFAULT .Fa now or .Fa res reference invalid memory. .El .Pp In addition, .Fn clock_settime may return the following errors: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EPERM A user other than the superuser attempted to set the time. .It Bq Er EINVAL The .Fa clock is not .Dv CLOCK_REALTIME . .It Bq Er EINVAL .Fa now specifies a nanosecond value less than zero or greater than or equal to one billion. .It Bq Er EINVAL .Fa now specifies a value outside the range of the given .Fa clock . .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr date 1 , .Xr adjtime 2 , .Xr getitimer 2 , .Xr gettimeofday 2 , .Xr clock_getcpuclockid 3 , .Xr ctime 3 , .Xr pthread_getcpuclockid 3 , .Xr strftime 3 , .Xr time 3 , .Xr timespecadd 3 , .Xr securelevel 7 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn clock_gettime , .Fn clock_settime , and .Fn clock_getres functions conform to .St -p1003.1-2008 . .Pp The .Dv CLOCK_BOOTTIME and .Dv CLOCK_UPTIME clocks are extensions to that specification. .Sh HISTORY The .Fn clock_gettime , .Fn clock_settime , and .Fn clock_getres functions and the .Dv CLOCK_REALTIME clock first appeared in .St -p1003.1b-93 and were first available in .Ox 2.1 . .Pp The .Dv CLOCK_MONOTONIC clock first appeared in IEEE Std 1003.1j-2000 .Pq Qo POSIX.1j Qc and was first available in .Ox 3.4 . .Pp The .Dv CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID and .Dv CLOCK_THREAD_CPUTIME_ID clocks first appeared in IEEE Std 1003.1d-1999 .Pq Qo POSIX.1d Qc and were first available in .Ox 5.4 . .Pp The .Dv CLOCK_UPTIME clock first appeared in .Fx 7.0 and was first available in .Ox 5.5 . .Pp The .Dv CLOCK_BOOTTIME clock first appeared in Linux 2.6.39 and was first available in .Ox 6.3 .