ctime.3p (5119B)
- '\" et
- .TH CTIME "3P" 2017 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
- .\"
- .SH PROLOG
- This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.
- The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult
- the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
- or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.
- .\"
- .SH NAME
- ctime,
- ctime_r
- \(em convert a time value to a date and time string
- .SH SYNOPSIS
- .LP
- .nf
- #include <time.h>
- .P
- char *ctime(const time_t *\fIclock\fP);
- char *ctime_r(const time_t *\fIclock\fP, char *\fIbuf\fP);
- .fi
- .SH DESCRIPTION
- For
- \fIctime\fR():
- The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the
- ISO\ C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the
- ISO\ C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017 defers to the ISO\ C standard.
- .P
- The
- \fIctime\fR()
- function shall convert the time pointed to by
- .IR clock ,
- representing time in seconds since the Epoch, to local time in the form
- of a string. It shall be equivalent to:
- .sp
- .RS 4
- .nf
- asctime(localtime(clock))
- .fi
- .P
- .RE
- .P
- The
- \fIasctime\fR(),
- \fIctime\fR(),
- \fIgmtime\fR(),
- and
- \fIlocaltime\fR()
- functions shall return values in one of two static objects: a
- broken-down time structure and an array of
- .BR char .
- Execution of any of the functions may overwrite the information
- returned in either of these objects by any of the other functions.
- .P
- The
- \fIctime\fR()
- function need not be thread-safe.
- .P
- The
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- function shall convert the calendar time pointed to by
- .IR clock
- to local time in exactly the same form as
- \fIctime\fR()
- and put the string into the array pointed to by
- .IR buf
- (which shall be at least 26 bytes in size) and return
- .IR buf .
- .P
- Unlike
- \fIctime\fR(),
- the
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- function is not required to set
- .IR tzname .
- If
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- sets
- .IR tzname ,
- it shall also set
- .IR daylight
- and
- .IR timezone .
- If
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- does not set
- .IR tzname ,
- it shall not set
- .IR daylight
- and shall not set
- .IR timezone .
- .SH "RETURN VALUE"
- The
- \fIctime\fR()
- function shall return the pointer returned by
- \fIasctime\fR()
- with that broken-down time as an argument.
- .P
- Upon successful completion,
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- shall return a pointer to the string pointed to by
- .IR buf .
- When an error is encountered, a null pointer shall be returned.
- .SH ERRORS
- No errors are defined.
- .LP
- .IR "The following sections are informative."
- .SH EXAMPLES
- None.
- .SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
- These functions are included only for compatibility with older
- implementations. They have undefined behavior if the resulting string
- would be too long, so the use of these functions should be discouraged.
- On implementations that do not detect output string length overflow, it
- is possible to overflow the output buffers in such a way as to cause
- applications to fail, or possible system security violations. Also,
- these functions do not support localized date and time formats. To
- avoid these problems, applications should use
- \fIstrftime\fR()
- to generate strings from broken-down times.
- .P
- Values for the broken-down time structure can be obtained by calling
- \fIgmtime\fR()
- or
- \fIlocaltime\fR().
- .P
- The
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- function is thread-safe and shall return values in a user-supplied
- buffer instead of possibly using a static data area that may be
- overwritten by each call.
- .P
- Attempts to use
- \fIctime\fR()
- or
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- for times before the Epoch or for times beyond the year 9999 produce
- undefined results. Refer to
- .IR "\fIasctime\fR\^(\|)".
- .SH RATIONALE
- The standard developers decided to mark the
- \fIctime\fR()
- and
- \fIctime_r\fR()
- functions obsolescent even though they are in the ISO\ C standard due to the
- possibility of buffer overflow. The ISO\ C standard also provides the
- \fIstrftime\fR()
- function which can be used to avoid these problems.
- .SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
- These functions may be removed in a future version.
- .SH "SEE ALSO"
- .IR "\fIasctime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIclock\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIdifftime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIgmtime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIlocaltime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fImktime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIstrftime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIstrptime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fItime\fR\^(\|)",
- .IR "\fIutime\fR\^(\|)"
- .P
- The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2017,
- .IR "\fB<time.h>\fP"
- .\"
- .SH COPYRIGHT
- Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
- from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology
- -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
- Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition,
- Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of
- Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
- In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
- The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
- is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
- http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
- .PP
- Any typographical or formatting errors that appear
- in this page are most likely
- to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to
- man page format. To report such errors, see
- https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .