NAME

       bintime, getbintime, microtime, getmicrotime, nanotime, getnanotime — get the current time

SYNOPSIS

       #include <sys/time.h>

       void
       bintime(struct bintime *bt);

       void
       getbintime(struct bintime *bt);

       void
       microtime(struct timeval *tv);

       void
       getmicrotime(struct timeval *tv);

       void
       nanotime(struct timespec *ts);

       void
       getnanotime(struct timespec *tsp);

DESCRIPTION

       The  bintime()  and  getbintime()  functions  store  the system time as a struct bintime at the addresses
       specified by bt.  The microtime() and getmicrotime() functions perform the same utility, but  record  the
       time as a struct timeval instead.  Similarly the nanotime() and getnanotime() functions store the time as
       a struct timespec.

       The  bintime(),  microtime(), and nanotime() functions always query the timecounter to return the current
       time as precisely as possible.  Whereas getbintime(), getmicrotime(),  and  getnanotime()  functions  are
       abstractions which return a less precise, but faster to obtain, time.

       The  intent  of  the  getbintime(),  getmicrotime(), and getnanotime() functions is to enforce the user's
       preference for timer accuracy versus execution time.

SEE ALSO

       binuptime(9),  getbinuptime(9),  getmicrouptime(9),  getnanouptime(9),   microuptime(9),   nanouptime(9),
       tvtohz(9)

HISTORY

       The bintime functions first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0.  The microtime and nanotime functions first appeared
       in FreeBSD 3.0 but have existed in other incarnations since 4.4BSD.

AUTHORS

       This manual page was written by Kelly Yancey <kbyanc@posi.net>.

Debian                                         September 16, 2004                                   MICROTIME(9)