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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.

NAME

       getdate — convert user format date and time

SYNOPSIS

       #include <time.h>

       struct tm *getdate(const char *string);

DESCRIPTION

       The  getdate()  function  shall  convert  a string representation of a date or time into a
       broken-down time.

       The external variable or macro getdate_err, which has type int, is used  by  getdate()  to
       return  error  values.  It  is unspecified whether getdate_err is a macro or an identifier
       declared with external linkage, and whether or not it is a modifiable lvalue. If  a  macro
       definition  is  suppressed  in  order  to access an actual object, or a program defines an
       identifier with the name getdate_err, the behavior is undefined.

       Templates are used to parse and interpret the input string. The templates are contained in
       a  text  file identified by the environment variable DATEMSK.  The DATEMSK variable should
       be set to indicate the full pathname of the file that contains the  templates.  The  first
       line  in  the template that matches the input specification is used for interpretation and
       conversion into the internal time format.

       The following conversion specifications shall be supported:

       %%      Equivalent to %.

       %a      Abbreviated weekday name.

       %A      Full weekday name.

       %b      Abbreviated month name.

       %B      Full month name.

       %c      Locale's appropriate date and time representation.

       %C      Century number [00,99]; leading zeros are permitted but not required.

       %d      Day of month [01,31]; the leading 0 is optional.

       %D      Date as %m/%d/%y.

       %e      Equivalent to %d.

       %h      Abbreviated month name.

       %H      Hour [00,23].

       %I      Hour [01,12].

       %m      Month number [01,12].

       %M      Minute [00,59].

       %n      Equivalent to <newline>.

       %p      Locale's equivalent of either AM or PM.

       %r      The locale's appropriate representation of time in AM and  PM  notation.   In  the
               POSIX locale, this shall be equivalent to %I:%M:%S %p.

       %R      Time as %H:%M.

       %S      Seconds  [00,60].  The  range  goes  to  60  (rather than stopping at 59) to allow
               positive leap seconds to be expressed. Since leap seconds cannot be  predicted  by
               any algorithm, leap second data must come from some external source.

       %t      Equivalent to <tab>.

       %T      Time as %H:%M:%S.

       %w      Weekday number (Sunday = [0,6]).

       %x      Locale's appropriate date representation.

       %X      Locale's appropriate time representation.

       %y      Year  within  century.  When  a  century is not otherwise specified, values in the
               range [69,99] shall refer to years 1969 to 1999 inclusive, and values in the range
               [00,68] shall refer to years 2000 to 2068 inclusive.

               Note:     It  is  expected  that  in a future version of this standard the default
                         century inferred from a 2-digit year will change. (This would  apply  to
                         all commands accepting a 2-digit year as input.)

       %Y      Year as "ccyy" (for example, 2001).

       %Z      Timezone  name or no characters if no timezone exists. If the timezone supplied by
               %Z is not the timezone that getdate()  expects,  an  invalid  input  specification
               error  shall  result. The getdate() function calculates an expected timezone based
               on information supplied to the function (such as the hour, day, and month).

       The match between the template and input specification performed  by  getdate()  shall  be
       case-insensitive.

       The month and weekday names can consist of any combination of upper and lowercase letters.
       The process can request that the input  date  or  time  specification  be  in  a  specific
       language by setting the LC_TIME category (see setlocale()).

       Leading  zeros are not necessary for the descriptors that allow leading zeros. However, at
       most two digits are allowed for those descriptors, including leading  zeros.  Extra  white
       space in either the template file or in string shall be ignored.

       The  results  are  undefined  if  the  conversion  specifications  %c,  %x, and %X include
       unsupported conversion specifications.

       The following rules apply for converting the input specification into the internal format:

        *  If %Z is being scanned, then getdate() shall initialize the broken-down time to be the
           current  time  in the scanned timezone. Otherwise, it shall initialize the broken-down
           time based on the current local time as if localtime() had been called.

        *  If only the weekday is given, the day chosen shall be the day, starting with today and
           moving into the future, which first matches the named day.

        *  If  only  the  month  (and  no  year)  is  given, the month chosen shall be the month,
           starting with the current month and moving into the future, which  first  matches  the
           named month. The first day of the month shall be assumed if no day is given.

        *  If  no  hour, minute, and second are given, the current hour, minute, and second shall
           be assumed.

        *  If no date is given, the hour chosen shall be the hour, starting with the current hour
           and moving into the future, which first matches the named hour.

       If  a  conversion  specification  in  the  DATEMSK  file does not correspond to one of the
       conversion specifications above, the behavior is unspecified.

       The getdate() function need not be thread-safe.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon successful completion, getdate() shall return a pointer to a struct  tm.   Otherwise,
       it shall return a null pointer and set getdate_err to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The getdate() function shall fail in the following cases, setting getdate_err to the value
       shown in the list below. Any changes to errno are unspecified.

        1. The DATEMSK environment variable is null or undefined.

        2. The template file cannot be opened for reading.

        3. Failed to get file status information.

        4. The template file is not a regular file.

        5. An I/O error is encountered while reading the template file.

        6. Memory allocation failed (not enough memory available).

        7. There is no line in the template that matches the input.

        8. Invalid input specification. For example, February 31; or a  time  is  specified  that
           cannot be represented in a time_t (representing the time in seconds since the Epoch).

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

        1. The following example shows the possible contents of a template:

               %m
               %A %B %d, %Y, %H:%M:%S
               %A
               %B
               %m/%d/%y %I %p
               %d,%m,%Y %H:%M
               at %A the %dst of %B in %Y
               run job at %I %p,%B %dnd
               %A den %d. %B %Y %H.%M Uhr

        2. The  following  are examples of valid input specifications for the template in Example
           1:

               getdate("10/1/87 4 PM");
               getdate("Friday");
               getdate("Friday September 18, 1987, 10:30:30");
               getdate("24,9,1986 10:30");
               getdate("at monday the 1st of december in 1986");
               getdate("run job at 3 PM, december 2nd");

           If the LC_TIME category is set to a German locale that includes freitag as  a  weekday
           name and oktober as a month name, the following would be valid:

               getdate("freitag den 10. oktober 1986 10.30 Uhr");

        3. The  following  example  shows how local date and time specification can be defined in
           the template:

                              ┌───────────────────────────┬──────────────────┐
                              │        InvocationLine in Template │
                              ├───────────────────────────┼──────────────────┤
                              │getdate("11/27/86")        │ %m/%d/%y         │
                              │getdate("27.11.86")        │ %d.%m.%y         │
                              │getdate("86-11-27")        │ %y-%m-%d         │
                              │getdate("Friday 12:00:00") │ %A %H:%M:%S      │
                              └───────────────────────────┴──────────────────┘
        4. The following examples help to illustrate the above rules assuming  that  the  current
           date  is Mon Sep 22 12:19:47 EDT 1986 and the LC_TIME category is set to the default C
           locale:

                      ┌─────────────┬──────────────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
                      │   InputLine in TemplateDate             │
                      ├─────────────┼──────────────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
                      │Mon          │ %a               │ Mon Sep 22 12:19:47 EDT 1986 │
                      │Sun          │ %a               │ Sun Sep 28 12:19:47 EDT 1986 │
                      │Fri          │ %a               │ Fri Sep 26 12:19:47 EDT 1986 │
                      │September    │ %B               │ Mon Sep 1 12:19:47 EDT 1986  │
                      │January      │ %B               │ Thu Jan 1 12:19:47 EST 1987  │
                      │December     │ %B               │ Mon Dec 1 12:19:47 EST 1986  │
                      │Sep Mon      │ %b %a            │ Mon Sep 1 12:19:47 EDT 1986  │
                      │Jan Fri      │ %b %a            │ Fri Jan 2 12:19:47 EST 1987  │
                      │Dec Mon      │ %b %a            │ Mon Dec 1 12:19:47 EST 1986  │
                      │Jan Wed 1989 │ %b %a %Y         │ Wed Jan 4 12:19:47 EST 1989  │
                      │Fri 9        │ %a %H            │ Fri Sep 26 09:00:00 EDT 1986 │
                      │Feb 10:30    │ %b %H:%S         │ Sun Feb 1 10:00:30 EST 1987  │
                      │10:30        │ %H:%M            │ Tue Sep 23 10:30:00 EDT 1986 │
                      │13:30        │ %H:%M            │ Mon Sep 22 13:30:00 EDT 1986 │
                      └─────────────┴──────────────────┴──────────────────────────────┘

APPLICATION USAGE

       Although historical versions of getdate()  did  not  require  that  <time.h>  declare  the
       external  variable  getdate_err, this volume of POSIX.1‐2008 does require it. The standard
       developers encourage applications  to  remove  declarations  of  getdate_err  and  instead
       incorporate the declaration by including <time.h>.

       Applications should use %Y (4-digit years) in preference to %y (2-digit years).

RATIONALE

       In  standard  locales,  the  conversion  specifications  %c,  %x,  and  %X  do not include
       unsupported conversion specifiers and so the text regarding results being undefined is not
       a problem in that case.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       ctime(), localtime(), setlocale(), strftime(), times()

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <time.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX),  The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc  and  The  Open  Group.   (This  is
       POSIX.1-2008  with  the  2013  Technical  Corrigendum  1  applied.)  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.unix.org/online.html .

       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 .