xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/microtime.9 (revision ae5ccfad9179b329ea2d70455c8cd77daa9aaece)
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25.\"    $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd January 3, 2000
28.Dt MICROTIME 9
29.Os FreeBSD
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm microtime ,
32.Nm getmicrotime ,
33.Nm nanotime ,
34.Nm getnanotime
35.Nd get the current time
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Fd #include <sys/time.h>
38.Ft void
39.Fn microtime "struct timeval *tv"
40.Ft void
41.Fn getmicrotime "struct timeval *tv"
42.Ft void
43.Fn nanotime "struct timespec *ts"
44.Ft void
45.Fn getnanotime "struct timespec *tsp"
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Fn microtime
49and
50.Fn getmicrotime
51functons stores the system time as a
52.Ft struct timeval
53at the address specified by
54.Fa tv .
55The
56.Fn nanotime
57and
58.Fn getnanotime
59functions perform the same utility, but record the time as a
60.Ft struct timespec
61instead.
62.Pp
63.Fn Microtime
64and
65.Fn nanotime
66always query the timecounter to return the current time as precisely as
67possible. Whereas
68.Fn getmicrotime
69and
70.Fn getnanotime
71functions are abstractions which can alternately return a less precise, but
72faster to obtain, time. This behaviour can be toggled via the
73kern.timecounter.method sysctl variable:
74.Bl -tag -width ABC
75.It Dv 0
76sacrifice precision in favor of faster code execution
77.It Dv 1
78return the more precise time (the same as calling
79.Fn microtime
80or
81.Fn nanotime ) .
82.El
83.Pp
84The intent of the
85.Fn getmicrotime
86and
87.Fn getnanotime
88functions is to enforce the user's preference for timer accuracy versus
89execution time.
90.Sh SEE ALSO
91.Xr getmicrouptime 9 ,
92.Xr getnanouptime 9 ,
93.Xr microuptime 9 ,
94.Xr nanouptime 9 ,
95.Xr tvtohz 9
96.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
97Buggy hardware can cause "calcru negative..." when kern.timecounter.method
98is set to 0.
99.Sh HISTORY
100The
101.Nm microtime
102and
103.Nm nanotime
104functions first appeared in
105.Fx 3.0
106but existed in other incarnations since
107.Bx 4.4
108.Sh AUTHORS
109This manual page was written by
110.An Kelly Yancey Aq kbyanc@posi.net .
111