TIMEVAL(3) | Library Functions Manual | TIMEVAL(3)

# NAME

`timeval`, `timespec`, `itimerval`, `itimerspec`, `bintime` —
time structures

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <sys/time.h>`

void
`TIMEVAL_TO_TIMESPEC`(struct timeval *tv, struct timespec *ts);

void
`TIMESPEC_TO_TIMEVAL`(struct timeval *tv, struct timespec *ts);

# DESCRIPTION

The `<sys/time.h>` header, included by `<time.h>`, defines various structures related to time and timers.

1. The following structure is used by gettimeofday(2), among others:

       struct timeval {
       	time_t		tv_sec;
       	suseconds_t	tv_usec;
       };

   The tv_sec member represents the elapsed time, in whole seconds. The tv_usec member captures rest of the elapsed time, represented as the number of microseconds.

2. The following structure is used by nanosleep(2), among others:

       struct timespec {
       	time_t		tv_sec;
       	long		tv_nsec;
       };

   The tv_sec member is again the elapsed time in whole seconds. The tv_nsec member represents the rest of the elapsed time in nanoseconds.

   A microsecond is equal to one millionth of a second, 1000 nanoseconds, or 1/1000 milliseconds. To ease the conversions, the macros `TIMEVAL_TO_TIMESPEC`() and `TIMESPEC_TO_TIMEVAL`() can be used to convert between struct timeval and struct timespec.

3. The following structure is used by setitimer(2), among others:

       struct itimerval {
       	struct timeval	it_interval;
       	struct timeval	it_value;
       };

4. The following structure is used by timer_settime(2), among others:

       struct itimerspec {
       	struct timespec	it_interval;
       	struct timespec	it_value;
       };

   Both struct itimerval and struct itimerspec are used to specify when a timer expires. Generally, it_interval specifies the period between successive timer expirations. A value zero implies that the alarm will fire only once. If it_value is non-zero, it indicates the time left to the next timer expiration. A value zero implies that the timer is disabled.

5. The following structure is used by bintime(9), among others:

       struct bintime {
       	time_t		sec;
       	uint64_t	frac;
       };

   The sec member specifies the time in seconds and frac represents a 64-bit fraction of seconds. The struct bintime is meant to be used in the kernel only. It is further described in timecounter(9).

# EXAMPLES

It can be stressed that the traditional UNIX timeval and timespec structures represent elapsed time, measured by the system clock (see hz(9)). The following sketch implements a function suitable for use in a context where the timespec structure is required for a conditional timeout:

    static void
    example(struct timespec *spec, time_t minutes)
    {
    	struct timeval elapsed;

    	(void)gettimeofday(&elapsed, NULL);

    	_DIAGASSERT(spec != NULL);
    	TIMEVAL_TO_TIMESPEC(&elapsed, spec);

    	/* Add the offset for timeout in minutes. */
    	spec->tv_sec = spec->tv_sec + minutes * 60;
    }

A better alternative would use the more precise clock_gettime(2).

# SEE ALSO

timeradd(3), tm(3), bintime_add(9)

April 12, 2011 | NetBSD 9.2