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.

     Bintime(), microtime(), and nanotime() 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() func-
     tions is to enforce the user's preference for timer accuracy versus exe-
     cution 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 bintime and
     nanotime functions first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0 but existed in other
     incarnations since 4.4BSD.

AUTHORS

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