VMS Help RTL Routines, LIB$, LIB$SYS_ASCTIM  *Conan The Librarian (sorry for the slow response - running on an old VAX)

    The Invoke $ASCTIM to Convert Binary Time to ASCII String routine
    calls the system service $ASCTIM to convert a binary date and
    time value, returning the ASCII string using the semantics of the
    caller's string.

    Format

      LIB$SYS_ASCTIM  [resultant-length] ,time-string [,user-time]

                      [,flags]

1 - Returns

    OpenVMS usage:cond_value
    type:         longword (unsigned)
    access:       write only
    mechanism:    by value

2 - Arguments

 resultant-length

    OpenVMS usage:word_unsigned
    type:         word (unsigned)
    access:       write only
    mechanism:    by reference

    Number of bytes written into time-string, not counting padding in
    the case of a fixed-length string. The resultant-length argument
    contains the address of an unsigned word integer that is this
    number.

    If the input string is truncated to the size specified in the
    time-string descriptor, resultant-length is set to this size.
    Therefore, resultant-length can always be used by the calling
    program to access a valid substring of time-string.

 time-string

    OpenVMS usage:time_name
    type:         character string
    access:       write only
    mechanism:    by descriptor

    Destination string into which LIB$SYS_ASCTIM writes the ASCII
    time string. The time-string argument contains the address of a
    descriptor pointing to the destination string.

 user-time

    OpenVMS usage:date_time
    type:         quadword (unsigned)
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by reference

    Value that LIB$SYS_ASCTIM converts to ASCII string form. The
    user-time argument contains the address of a signed quadword
    integer that is this value.

    If 0 or no address is specified, the current system date and time
    are returned. A positive value represents an absolute time. A
    negative value represents a delta time. Delta times must be less
    than 10,000 days.

 flags

    OpenVMS usage:mask_longword
    type:         longword (unsigned)
    access:       read only
    mechanism:    by reference

    Conversion indicator specifying which date and time fields
    LIB$SYS_ASCTIM should return. The flags argument is the address
    of an unsigned bit mask that contains this conversion indicator.

    A value of 1 causes only the hour, minute, second, and hundredths
    of a second to be returned, depending on the length of the
    buffer. A value of 0 (the default) causes the full date and time
    to be returned, depending on the length of the buffer.

    The results of specifying some possible combinations for the
    values of the flags and time-string arguments are shown below:

               Time-
    Time       String     Flags
    Value      Length     Value   Information Returned

    Absolute   23         0       Date and time
    Absolute   12         0       Date
    Absolute   11         1       Time
    Delta      16         0       Days and time
    Delta      11         1       Time

    The flags argument is passed to LIB$SYS_ASCTIM by reference and
    is changed to value for use by $ASCTIM.