1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Joerg Wunsch 3.\" 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 15.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR 16.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES 17.\" OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. 18.\" IN NO EVENT SHALL THE DEVELOPERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, 19.\" INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT 20.\" NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, 21.\" DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY 22.\" THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT 23.\" (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF 24.\" THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 25.\" 26.\" $FreeBSD$ 27.\" " 28.Dd May 8, 1997 29.Dt STRPTIME 3 30.Os 31.Sh NAME 32.Nm strptime 33.Nd parse date and time string 34.Sh SYNOPSIS 35.Fd #include <time.h> 36.Ft char * 37.Fn strptime "const char *buf" "const char *format" "struct tm *timeptr" 38.Sh DESCRIPTION 39The 40.Fn strptime 41function parses the string in the buffer 42.Fa buf 43according to the string pointed to by 44.Fa format , 45and fills in the elements of the structure pointed to by 46.Fa timeptr . 47The resulting values will be relative to the local time zone. 48Thus, it can be considered the reverse operation of 49.Xr strftime 3 . 50.Pp 51The 52.Fa format 53string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and 54ordinary characters. 55All ordinary characters are matched exactly with the buffer, where 56white space in the format string will match any amount of white space 57in the buffer. 58All conversion specifications are identical to those described in 59.Xr strftime 3 . 60.Pp 61Two-digit year values, including formats 62.Fa %y 63and 64.Fa %D , 65are now interpreted as beginning at 1969 per POSIX requirements. 66Years 69-00 are interpreted in the 20th century (1969-2000), years 6701-68 in the 21st century (2001-2068). 68.Sh RETURN VALUES 69Upon successful completion, 70.Fn strptime 71returns the pointer to the first character in 72.Fa buf 73that has not been required to satisfy the specified conversions in 74.Fa format . 75It returns 76.Dv NULL 77if one of the conversions failed. 78.Sh SEE ALSO 79.Xr date 1 , 80.Xr scanf 3 , 81.Xr strftime 3 82.Sh AUTHORS 83The 84.Fn strptime 85function has been contributed by Powerdog Industries. 86.Pp 87This man page was written by 88.ie t J\(:org Wunsch. 89.el Joerg Wunsch. 90.Sh HISTORY 91The 92.Fn strptime 93function appeared in 94.Fx 3.0 . 95.Pp 96.Sh BUGS 97The 98.Fa %Z 99format specifier only accepts time zone abbreviations of the local time zone, 100or the value "GMT". 101This limitation is because of ambiguity due to of the over loading of time 102zone abbreviations. One such example is 103.Fa EST 104which is both Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Australia Summer Time. 105