MICROTIME(9)	       FreeBSD Kernel Developer's Manual	  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.

     The bintime(), microtime(), and nanotime() functions always query the
     timecounter to return the current time as precisely as possible.  Whereas
     getbintime(), getmicrotime(), and getnanotime() functions are abstrac-
     tions 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 microtime and
     nanotime functions first appeared in FreeBSD 3.0 but have existed in
     other incarnations since 4.4BSD.

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

FreeBSD 7.2		      September 16, 2004		   FreeBSD 7.2

NAME - SYNOPSIS - DESCRIPTION - SEE ALSO - HISTORY - AUTHORS -