xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/adjtime.2 (revision c423c59d2dea158f1d02a923e5a64689a3996611)
1.\"	$NetBSD: adjtime.2,v 1.21 2015/12/07 23:20:57 pgoyette Exp $
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30.\"     @(#)adjtime.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
31.\"
32.Dd December 8, 2015
33.Dt ADJTIME 2
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm adjtime
37.Nd "correct the time to allow synchronization of the system clock"
38.Sh LIBRARY
39.Lb libc
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In sys/time.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn adjtime "const struct timeval *delta" "struct timeval *olddelta"
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Fn adjtime
46makes small adjustments to the system time, as returned by
47.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
48advancing or retarding it
49by the time specified by the timeval
50.Fa delta .
51If
52.Fa delta
53is negative, the clock is
54slowed down by incrementing it more slowly than normal until
55the correction is complete.
56If
57.Fa delta
58is positive, a larger increment than normal
59is used.
60The skew used to perform the correction is generally a fraction of one percent.
61Thus, the time is always
62a monotonically increasing function.
63A time correction from an earlier call to
64.Fn adjtime
65may not be finished when
66.Fn adjtime
67is called again.
68If
69.Fa olddelta
70is non-nil,
71the structure pointed to will contain, upon return, the
72number of microseconds still to be corrected
73from the earlier call.
74.Pp
75This call may be used by time servers that synchronize the clocks
76of computers in a local area network.
77Such time servers would slow down the clocks of some machines
78and speed up the clocks of others to bring them to the average network time.
79.Pp
80If the calling user is not the super user, the
81.Fn adjtime
82system call will fail, and the
83.Fn adjtime
84function in the standard C library will try to use the
85.Xr clockctl 4
86device if present, thus making it possible for non privileged users to
87adjust the system time.
88If
89.Xr clockctl 4
90is not present or not accessible, then
91.Fn adjtime
92returns
93.Er EPERM .
94.Sh RETURN VALUES
95A return value of 0 indicates that the call succeeded.
96A return value of \-1 indicates that an error occurred, and in this
97case an error code is stored in the global variable
98.Va errno .
99.Sh ERRORS
100.Fn adjtime
101will fail if:
102.Bl -tag -width Er
103.It Bq Er EFAULT
104An argument points outside the process's allocated address space.
105.It Bq Er EPERM
106The process's effective user ID is not that of the super user.
107.El
108.Sh SEE ALSO
109.Xr date 1 ,
110.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
111.Xr clockctl 4 ,
112.Xr timed 8 ,
113.Xr timedc 8
114.Rs
115.%T "TSP: The Time Synchronization Protocol for UNIX 4.3BSD"
116.%A R. Gusella
117.%A S. Zatti
118.Re
119.Sh HISTORY
120The
121.Fn adjtime
122function call appeared in
123.Bx 4.3 .
124