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GETTIMEOFDAY(2) Linux Programmer's Manual GETTIMEOFDAY(2)

NAME

     gettimeofday, settimeofday - get / set time

SYNOPSIS

     #include <sys/time.h>

     int gettimeofday(struct timeval *tv, struct timezone *tz);

     int settimeofday(const struct timeval *tv, const struct timezone *tz);

 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

     settimeofday():
         Since glibc 2.19:
             _DEFAULT_SOURCE
         Glibc 2.19 and earlier:
             _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

     The  functions  gettimeofday()  and  settimeofday() can get and set the
     time as well as a timezone.  The tv argument is a  struct  timeval  (as
     specified in <sys/time.h>):

         struct timeval {
             time_t      tv_sec;     /* seconds */
             suseconds_t tv_usec;    /* microseconds */ };

     and  gives  the number of seconds and microseconds since the Epoch (see
     time(2)).  The tz argument is a struct timezone:

         struct timezone {
             int tz_minuteswest;     /* minutes west of Greenwich */
             int tz_dsttime;         /* type of DST correction */ };

     If either tv or tz is NULL, the corresponding structure is not  set  or
     returned.  (However, compilation warnings will result if tv is NULL.)

     The  use  of the timezone structure is obsolete; the tz argument should
     normally be specified as NULL.  (See NOTES below.)

     Under Linux, there are some peculiar "warp clock" semantics  associated
     with  the  settimeofday()  system call if on the very first call (after
     booting) that has a non-NULL tz argument, the tv argument is  NULL  and
     the  tz_minuteswest  field is nonzero.  (The tz_dsttime field should be
     zero for this case.)  In such a case it is assumed that the CMOS  clock
     is  on  local time, and that it has to be incremented by this amount to
     get UTC system time.  No doubt it is a bad idea to use this feature.

RETURN VALUE

     gettimeofday() and settimeofday() return 0 for success, or -1 for fail-
     ure (in which case errno is set appropriately).

ERRORS

     EFAULT One of tv or tz pointed outside the accessible address space.

     EINVAL Timezone (or something else) is invalid.

     EPERM  The  calling process has insufficient privilege to call settime-
            ofday(); under Linux the CAP_SYS_TIME capability is required.

CONFORMING TO

     SVr4, 4.3BSD.  POSIX.1-2001 describes gettimeofday() but not settimeof-
     day().  POSIX.1-2008 marks gettimeofday() as obsolete, recommending the
     use of clock_gettime(2) instead.

NOTES

     The time returned by gettimeofday() is affected by discontinuous  jumps
     in  the system time (e.g., if the system administrator manually changes
     the system time).  If you need a monotonically  increasing  clock,  see
     clock_gettime(2).

     Macros  for  operating  on  timeval  structures are described in timer-
     add(3).

     Traditionally, the fields of struct timeval were of type long.

 C library/kernel differences
     On some architectures, an implementation of gettimeofday() is  provided
     in the vdso(7).

 The tz_dsttime field
     On a non-Linux kernel, with glibc, the tz_dsttime field of struct time-
     zone will be set to a nonzero value by gettimeofday()  if  the  current
     timezone  has ever had or will have a daylight saving rule applied.  In
     this sense it exactly mirrors the meaning of daylight(3) for  the  cur-
     rent  zone.   On Linux, with glibc, the setting of the tz_dsttime field
     of struct timezone has never been used by settimeofday() or  gettimeof-
     day().  Thus, the following is purely of historical interest.

     On old systems, the field tz_dsttime contains a symbolic constant (val-
     ues are given below) that indicates in which part of the year  Daylight
     Saving  Time is in force.  (Note: this value is constant throughout the
     year: it does not indicate that DST is in force,  it  just  selects  an
     algorithm.)   The  daylight  saving time algorithms defined are as fol-
     lows:

         DST_NONE     /* not on DST */ DST_USA       /*  USA  style  DST  */
         DST_AUST      /*  Australian  style  DST */ DST_WET      /* Western
         European DST */ DST_MET      /*  Middle  European  DST  */  DST_EET
         /*  Eastern  European  DST  */  DST_CAN       /*  Canada  */ DST_GB
         /* Great Britain and Eire */ DST_RUM       /*  Romania  */  DST_TUR
         /* Turkey */ DST_AUSTALT  /* Australian style with shift in 1986 */

     Of course it turned out that the period in which Daylight  Saving  Time
     is  in  force  cannot  be given by a simple algorithm, one per country;
     indeed, this period is determined by unpredictable political decisions.
     So this method of representing timezones has been abandoned.