xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/time.9 (revision 4f8f43b06ed07e96a250855488cc531799d5b78f)
1.\"	$NetBSD: time.9,v 1.1 1995/11/25 21:24:53 perry Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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5.\"
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7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
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14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
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16.\"      This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou
17.\"      for the NetBSD Project.
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32.Dd May 4, 2021
33.Dt TIME 9
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm boottime ,
37.Nm time_second ,
38.Nm time_uptime
39.Nd system time variables
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In sys/time.h
42.Pp
43.Vt extern struct timeval boottime ;
44.Vt extern time_t time_second ;
45.Vt extern time_t time_uptime ;
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Va boottime
49variable holds the estimated system boot time.
50This time is initially set when the system boots, either from the RTC, or from a
51time estimated from the system's root filesystem.
52When the current system time is set, stepped by
53.Xr ntpd 8 ,
54or a new time is read from the RTC as the system resumes,
55.Va boottime
56is recomputed as new_time - uptime.
57The
58.Xr sysctl 8
59.Va kern.boottime
60returns this value.
61.Pp
62The
63.Va time_second
64variable is the system's
65.Dq wall time
66clock to the second.
67.Pp
68The
69.Va time_uptime
70variable is the number of seconds since boot.
71.Pp
72The
73.Xr bintime 9 ,
74.Xr getbintime 9 ,
75.Xr microtime 9 ,
76.Xr getmicrotime 9 ,
77.Xr nanotime 9 ,
78and
79.Xr getnanotime 9
80functions can be used to get the current time more accurately and in an
81atomic manner.
82Similarly, the
83.Xr binuptime 9 ,
84.Xr getbinuptime 9 ,
85.Xr microuptime 9 ,
86.Xr getmicrouptime 9 ,
87.Xr nanouptime 9 ,
88and
89.Xr getnanouptime 9
90functions can be used to get the time elapse since boot more accurately
91and in an atomic manner.
92The
93.Va boottime
94variable may be read and written without special precautions.
95It is adjusted when the phase of the system time changes.
96.Sh SEE ALSO
97.Xr clock_settime 2 ,
98.Xr ntp_adjtime 2 ,
99.Xr settimeofday 2 ,
100.Xr bintime 9 ,
101.Xr binuptime 9 ,
102.Xr getbintime 9 ,
103.Xr getbinuptime 9 ,
104.Xr getmicrotime 9 ,
105.Xr getmicrouptime 9 ,
106.Xr getnanotime 9 ,
107.Xr getnanouptime 9 ,
108.Xr microtime 9 ,
109.Xr microuptime 9 ,
110.Xr nanotime 9 ,
111.Xr nanouptime 9
112.Rs
113.%A "Poul-Henning Kamp"
114.%T "Timecounters: Efficient and precise timekeeping in SMP kernels"
115.%J "Proceedings of EuroBSDCon 2002, Amsterdam"
116.%O /usr/share/doc/papers/timecounter.ascii.gz
117.Re
118.Rs
119.%A "Marshall Kirk McKusick"
120.%A "George V. Neville-Neil"
121.%B "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System"
122.%D "July 2004"
123.%I "Addison-Wesley"
124.%P "57-61,65-66"
125.Re
126