xref: /netbsd-src/share/man/man9/inittodr.9 (revision 4472dbe5e3bd91ef2540bada7a7ca7384627ff9b)
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3.\" Copyright (c) 1994 Christopher G. Demetriou
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32.Dd November 13, 1995
33.Dt INITTODR 9
34.Os
35.Sh NAME
36.Nm inittodr
37.Nd initialize system time
38.Sh SYNOPSIS
39.Ft void
40.Fn inittodr "time_t base"
41.Sh DESCRIPTION
42The
43.Fn inittodr
44function determines the time and sets the system clock.
45It tries to pick the correct time using a set of heuristics that examine
46the system's battery backed clock and the time reported by the file
47system, as given in
48.Fa base .
49Those heuristics include:
50.Bl -bullet
51.It
52If the battery-backed clock has a valid time, it is used.
53.It
54If the battery-backed clock does not have a valid time, and
55the time provided in
56.Fa base
57is within reason,
58.Fa base
59is used as the current time.
60.It
61If the battery-backed clock appears invalid, and
62.Fa base
63appears non-sensical or was not provided (was given as zero),
64a arbitrary base (typically some time in the late 1970s)
65will be used.
66.El
67.Pp
68Once a system time has been determined, it is stored in the
69.Va time
70variable.
71.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
72The
73.Fn inittodr
74function prints diagnostic messages if it has trouble figuring
75out the system time.  Conditions that can cause diagnostic
76messages to be printed include:
77.Bl -bullet
78.It
79The battery-backed clock's time appears nonsensical.
80.It
81The
82.Fa base
83time appears nonsensical.
84.It
85The
86.Fa base
87time and the battery-backed clock's time differ by a large amount.
88.El
89.Sh SEE ALSO
90.Xr resettodr 9 ,
91.Xr time 9
92.Sh BUGS
93On many systems,
94.Fn inittodr
95has to convert from
96a time expressed in terms of year, month, day, hours, minutes,
97and seconds to
98.Va time ,
99expressed in seconds.  Many of the implementations could share code,
100but do not.
101.Pp
102Each system's heuristics for picking the correct time are slightly
103different.
104