xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/inittodr.9 (revision 397e83df75e0fcd0d3fcb95ae4d794cb7600fc89)
1.\"	$NetBSD: inittodr.9,v 1.2 1996/03/27 21:16:06 jtc Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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32.Dd March 22, 1997
33.Dt INITTODR 9
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm inittodr
37.Nd initialize system time
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.In sys/types.h
40.In sys/systm.h
41.Ft void
42.Fn inittodr "time_t base"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn inittodr
46function determines the time and sets the system clock.
47It tries to pick the correct time using a set of heuristics that examine
48the system's battery backed clock and the time obtained from the root
49file system, as given in
50.Fa base .
51How the
52.Fa base
53value is obtained will vary depending on the
54root file system type.
55The heuristics used include:
56.Bl -bullet
57.It
58If the battery-backed clock has a valid time, it is used.
59.\" .It
60.\" If the battery-backed clock does not have a valid time, and
61.\" the time provided in
62.\" .Fa base
63.\" is within reason,
64.\" .Fa base
65.\" is used as the current time.
66.\" .It
67.\" If the battery-backed clock appears invalid, and
68.\" .Fa base
69.\" appears non-sensical or was not provided (was given as zero),
70.\" a arbitrary base (typically some time in the late 1970s)
71.\" will be used.
72.It
73If the battery-backed clock does not have a valid time,
74the time provided in
75.Fa base
76will be used.
77.El
78.Pp
79Once a system time has been determined, it is stored in the
80.Va time
81variable.
82.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
83The
84.Fn inittodr
85function prints diagnostic messages if it has trouble figuring
86out the system time.
87Conditions that can cause diagnostic messages to be printed include:
88.Bl -bullet
89.It
90The battery-backed clock's time appears nonsensical.
91.\" .It
92.\" The
93.\" .Fa base
94.\" time appears nonsensical.
95.\" .It
96.\" The
97.\" .Fa base
98.\" time and the battery-backed clock's time differ by a large amount.
99.El
100.Sh SEE ALSO
101.Xr resettodr 9 ,
102.Xr time 9
103.Sh BUGS
104On many systems,
105.Fn inittodr
106has to convert from
107a time expressed in terms of year, month, day, hours, minutes,
108and seconds to
109.Va time ,
110expressed in seconds.
111Many of the implementations could share code, but do not.
112.Pp
113Each system's heuristics for picking the correct time are slightly
114different.
115.Pp
116The
117.Fx
118implementation should do a better job of validating the time provided in
119.Fa base
120when the battery-backed clock is unusable.
121Currently it unconditionally sets the system clock to this value.
122