curl_getdate
curl_getdate(3) libcurl Manual curl_getdate(3)
NAME
curl_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 parameter specifies. The now
parameter is there and should hold the current time to allow the dat-
estring to specify relative 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 flavors 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: `Sunday', `Mon-
day', etc or they may be abbreviated to their first three let-
ters, optionally followed by a period. The special abbrevia-
tions `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 context, `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 `yesterday' 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 cal-
endar 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. Oth-
erwise 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 ALSO
BUGS
Surely there are some, you tell me!
libcurl 7.0 5 March 2001 curl_getdate(3)
