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>.