curl_getdate(3) libcurl Manual curl_getdate(3)NAMEcurl_getdate - Convert an date in a ASCII string to number
of seconds since January 1, 1970
SYNOPSIS
#include <curl/curl.h>
time_t curl_getdate(char *datestring, time_t *now");
DESCRIPTION
This function returns the number of seconds since January
1st 1970, for the date and time that the datestring param-
eter specifies. The now parameter is there and should hold
the current time to allow the datestring to specify rela-
tive dates/times. Read further in the date string parser
section below.
PARSING DATES AND TIMES
A "date" is a string, possibly empty, containing many
items separated by whitespace. The whitespace may be
omitted when no ambiguity arises. The empty string means
the beginning of today (i.e., midnight). Order of the
items is immaterial. A date string may contain many fla-
vors of items:
calendar date items
This can be specified in a number of different
ways. Including 1970-09-17, 70-9-17, 70-09-17,
9/17/72, 24 September 1972, 24 Sept 72, 24 Sep 72,
Sep 24, 1972, 24-sep-72, 24sep72. The year can
also be omitted, for example: 9/17 or "sep 17".
time of the day items
This string specifies the time on a given day.
Syntax supported includes: 18:19:0, 18:19, 6:19pm,
18:19-0500 (for specifying the time zone as well).
time zone items
Specifies international time zone. There are a few
acronyms supported, but in general you should
instead use the specific realtive time compared to
UTC. Supported formats include: -1200, MST, +0100.
day of the week items
Specifies a day of the week. If this is mentioned
alone it means that day of the week in the future.
Days of the week may be spelled out in full: `Sun-
day', `Monday', etc or they may be abbreviated to
their first three letters, optionally followed by
a period. The special abbreviations `Tues' for
`Tuesday', `Wednes' for `Wednesday' and `Thur' or
`Thurs' for `Thursday' are also allowed.
A number may precede a day of the week item to
move forward supplementary weeks. It is best used
in expression like `third monday'. In this con-
text, `last DAY' or `next DAY' is also acceptable;
they move one week before or after the day that
DAY by itself would represent.
relative items
A relative item adjusts a date (or the current
date if none) forward or backward. Example syntax
includes: "1 year", "1 year ago", "2 days", "4
weeks".
The string `tomorrow' is worth one day in the
future (equivalent to `day'), the string `yester-
day' is worth one day in the past (equivalent to
`day ago').
pure numbers
If the decimal number is of the form YYYYMMDD and
no other calendar date item appears before it in
the date string, then YYYY is read as the year, MM
as the month number and DD as the day of the
month, for the specified calendar date.
RETURN VALUE
This function returns zero when it fails to parse the date
string. Otherwise it returns the number of seconds as
described.
AUTHORS
Originally written by Steven M. Bellovin
<smb@research.att.com> while at the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill. Later tweaked by a couple of
people on Usenet. Completely overhauled by Rich $alz
<rsalz@bbn.com> and Jim Berets <jberets@bbn.com> in
August, 1990.
SEE ALSOBUGS
Surely there are some, you tell me!
libcurl 7.0 5 March 2001 curl_getdate(3)
