xref: /freebsd/share/man/man9/time.9 (revision dd41de95a84d979615a2ef11df6850622bf6184e)
1.\"	$NetBSD: time.9,v 1.1 1995/11/25 21:24:53 perry Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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
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11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
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13.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
14.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
15.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
16.\"      This product includes software developed by Christopher G. Demetriou
17.\"      for the NetBSD Project.
18.\" 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
19.\"    derived from this software without specific prior written permission
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21.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR
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31.\"
32.\" $FreeBSD$
33.\"
34.Dd May 4, 2021
35.Dt TIME 9
36.Os
37.Sh NAME
38.Nm boottime ,
39.Nm time_second ,
40.Nm time_uptime
41.Nd system time variables
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.In sys/time.h
44.Pp
45.Vt extern struct timeval boottime ;
46.Vt extern time_t time_second ;
47.Vt extern time_t time_uptime ;
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Va boottime
51variable holds the estimated system boot time.
52This time is initially set when the system boots, either from the RTC, or from a
53time estimated from the system's root filesystem.
54When the current system time is set, stepped by
55.Xr ntpd 8 ,
56or a new time is read from the RTC as the system resumes,
57.Va boottime
58is recomputed as new_time - uptime.
59The
60.Xr sysctl 8
61.Va kern.boottime
62returns this value.
63.Pp
64The
65.Va time_second
66variable is the system's
67.Dq wall time
68clock to the second.
69.Pp
70The
71.Va time_uptime
72variable is the number of seconds since boot.
73.Pp
74The
75.Xr bintime 9 ,
76.Xr getbintime 9 ,
77.Xr microtime 9 ,
78.Xr getmicrotime 9 ,
79.Xr nanotime 9 ,
80and
81.Xr getnanotime 9
82functions can be used to get the current time more accurately and in an
83atomic manner.
84Similarly, the
85.Xr binuptime 9 ,
86.Xr getbinuptime 9 ,
87.Xr microuptime 9 ,
88.Xr getmicrouptime 9 ,
89.Xr nanouptime 9 ,
90and
91.Xr getnanouptime 9
92functions can be used to get the time elapse since boot more accurately
93and in an atomic manner.
94The
95.Va boottime
96variable may be read and written without special precautions.
97It is adjusted when the phase of the system time changes.
98.Sh SEE ALSO
99.Xr clock_settime 2 ,
100.Xr ntp_adjtime 2 ,
101.Xr settimeofday 2 ,
102.Xr bintime 9 ,
103.Xr binuptime 9 ,
104.Xr getbintime 9 ,
105.Xr getbinuptime 9 ,
106.Xr getmicrotime 9 ,
107.Xr getmicrouptime 9 ,
108.Xr getnanotime 9 ,
109.Xr getnanouptime 9 ,
110.Xr microtime 9 ,
111.Xr microuptime 9 ,
112.Xr nanotime 9 ,
113.Xr nanouptime 9
114.Rs
115.%A "Poul-Henning Kamp"
116.%T "Timecounters: Efficient and precise timekeeping in SMP kernels"
117.%J "Proceedings of EuroBSDCon 2002, Amsterdam"
118.%O /usr/share/doc/papers/timecounter.ascii.gz
119.Re
120.Rs
121.%A "Marshall Kirk McKusick"
122.%A "George V. Neville-Neil"
123.%B "The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System"
124.%D "July 2004"
125.%I "Addison-Wesley"
126.%P "57-61,65-66"
127.Re
128