xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdtime/strftime.3 (revision ea825d02749f382c3f7e17f28247f20a48733eab)
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32.\"     @(#)strftime.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 25, 2012
36.Dt STRFTIME 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm strftime
40.Nd format date and time
41.Sh LIBRARY
42.Lb libc
43.Sh SYNOPSIS
44.In time.h
45.Ft size_t
46.Fo strftime
47.Fa "char * restrict buf"
48.Fa "size_t maxsize"
49.Fa "const char * restrict format"
50.Fa "const struct tm * restrict timeptr"
51.Fc
52.Ft size_t
53.Fn strftime_l "char *restrict buf" "size_t maxsize" "const char * restrict format" "const struct tm *restrict timeptr" "locale_t loc"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Fn strftime
57function formats the information from
58.Fa timeptr
59into the buffer
60.Fa buf
61according to the string pointed to by
62.Fa format .
63The function
64.Fn strftime_l
65does the same as
66.Fn strftime
67but takes an explicit locale rather than using the current locale.
68.Pp
69The
70.Fa format
71string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and
72ordinary characters.
73All ordinary characters are copied directly into the buffer.
74A conversion specification consists of a percent sign
75.Dq Ql %
76and one other character.
77.Pp
78No more than
79.Fa maxsize
80characters will be placed into the array.
81If the total number of resulting characters, including the terminating
82NUL character, is not more than
83.Fa maxsize ,
84.Fn strftime
85returns the number of characters in the array, not counting the
86terminating NUL.
87Otherwise, zero is returned and the buffer contents are indeterminate.
88.Pp
89The conversion specifications are copied to the buffer after expansion
90as follows:-
91.Bl -tag -width "xxxx"
92.It Cm \&%A
93is replaced by national representation of the full weekday name.
94.It Cm %a
95is replaced by national representation of
96the abbreviated weekday name.
97.It Cm \&%B
98is replaced by national representation of the full month name.
99.It Cm %b
100is replaced by national representation of
101the abbreviated month name.
102.It Cm \&%C
103is replaced by (year / 100) as decimal number; single
104digits are preceded by a zero.
105.It Cm %c
106is replaced by national representation of time and date.
107.It Cm \&%D
108is equivalent to
109.Dq Li %m/%d/%y .
110.It Cm %d
111is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (01-31).
112.It Cm %E* %O*
113POSIX locale extensions.
114The sequences
115%Ec %EC %Ex %EX %Ey %EY
116%Od %Oe %OH %OI %Om %OM
117%OS %Ou %OU %OV %Ow %OW %Oy
118are supposed to provide alternate
119representations.
120.Pp
121Additionally %OB implemented
122to represent alternative months names
123(used standalone, without day mentioned).
124.It Cm %e
125is replaced by the day of the month as a decimal number (1-31); single
126digits are preceded by a blank.
127.It Cm \&%F
128is equivalent to
129.Dq Li %Y-%m-%d .
130.It Cm \&%G
131is replaced by a year as a decimal number with century.
132This year is the one that contains the greater part of
133the week (Monday as the first day of the week).
134.It Cm %g
135is replaced by the same year as in
136.Dq Li %G ,
137but as a decimal number without century (00-99).
138.It Cm \&%H
139is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (00-23).
140.It Cm %h
141the same as
142.Cm %b .
143.It Cm \&%I
144is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (01-12).
145.It Cm %j
146is replaced by the day of the year as a decimal number (001-366).
147.It Cm %k
148is replaced by the hour (24-hour clock) as a decimal number (0-23);
149single digits are preceded by a blank.
150.It Cm %l
151is replaced by the hour (12-hour clock) as a decimal number (1-12);
152single digits are preceded by a blank.
153.It Cm \&%M
154is replaced by the minute as a decimal number (00-59).
155.It Cm %m
156is replaced by the month as a decimal number (01-12).
157.It Cm %n
158is replaced by a newline.
159.It Cm %O*
160the same as
161.Cm %E* .
162.It Cm %p
163is replaced by national representation of either
164"ante meridiem" (a.m.)
165or
166"post meridiem" (p.m.)
167as appropriate.
168.It Cm \&%R
169is equivalent to
170.Dq Li %H:%M .
171.It Cm %r
172is equivalent to
173.Dq Li %I:%M:%S %p .
174.It Cm \&%S
175is replaced by the second as a decimal number (00-60).
176.It Cm %s
177is replaced by the number of seconds since the Epoch, UTC (see
178.Xr mktime 3 ) .
179.It Cm \&%T
180is equivalent to
181.Dq Li %H:%M:%S .
182.It Cm %t
183is replaced by a tab.
184.It Cm \&%U
185is replaced by the week number of the year (Sunday as the first day of
186the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
187.It Cm %u
188is replaced by the weekday (Monday as the first day of the week)
189as a decimal number (1-7).
190.It Cm \&%V
191is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
192the week) as a decimal number (01-53).
193If the week containing January
1941 has four or more days in the new year, then it is week 1; otherwise
195it is the last week of the previous year, and the next week is week 1.
196.It Cm %v
197is equivalent to
198.Dq Li %e-%b-%Y .
199.It Cm \&%W
200is replaced by the week number of the year (Monday as the first day of
201the week) as a decimal number (00-53).
202.It Cm %w
203is replaced by the weekday (Sunday as the first day of the week)
204as a decimal number (0-6).
205.It Cm \&%X
206is replaced by national representation of the time.
207.It Cm %x
208is replaced by national representation of the date.
209.It Cm \&%Y
210is replaced by the year with century as a decimal number.
211.It Cm %y
212is replaced by the year without century as a decimal number (00-99).
213.It Cm \&%Z
214is replaced by the time zone name.
215.It Cm %z
216is replaced by the time zone offset from UTC; a leading plus sign stands for
217east of UTC, a minus sign for west of UTC, hours and minutes follow
218with two digits each and no delimiter between them (common form for
219RFC 822 date headers).
220.It Cm %+
221is replaced by national representation of the date and time
222(the format is similar to that produced by
223.Xr date 1 ) .
224.It Cm %-*
225GNU libc extension.
226Do not do any padding when performing numerical outputs.
227.It Cm %_*
228GNU libc extension.
229Explicitly specify space for padding.
230.It Cm %0*
231GNU libc extension.
232Explicitly specify zero for padding.
233.It Cm %%
234is replaced by
235.Ql % .
236.El
237.Sh SEE ALSO
238.Xr date 1 ,
239.Xr printf 1 ,
240.Xr ctime 3 ,
241.Xr printf 3 ,
242.Xr strptime 3 ,
243.Xr wcsftime 3
244.Sh STANDARDS
245The
246.Fn strftime
247function
248conforms to
249.St -isoC
250with a lot of extensions including
251.Ql \&%C ,
252.Ql \&%D ,
253.Ql %E* ,
254.Ql %e ,
255.Ql %G ,
256.Ql %g ,
257.Ql %h ,
258.Ql %k ,
259.Ql %l ,
260.Ql %n ,
261.Ql %O* ,
262.Ql \&%R ,
263.Ql %r ,
264.Ql %s ,
265.Ql \&%T ,
266.Ql %t ,
267.Ql %u ,
268.Ql \&%V ,
269.Ql %z ,
270.Ql %+ .
271.Pp
272The peculiar week number and year in the replacements of
273.Ql %G ,
274.Ql %g
275and
276.Ql \&%V
277are defined in ISO 8601: 1988.
278The
279.Fn strftime_l
280function conforms to
281.St -p1003.1-2008 .
282.Sh BUGS
283There is no conversion specification for the phase of the moon.
284.Pp
285The
286.Fn strftime
287function does not correctly handle multibyte characters in the
288.Fa format
289argument.
290