MICROTIME(9)

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>.