xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/adjtime.2 (revision f6aab3d83b51b91c24247ad2c2573574de475a82)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: adjtime.2,v 1.25 2019/03/26 16:02:54 cheloha Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: adjtime.2,v 1.5 1995/10/12 15:40:44 jtc Exp $
3.\"
4.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993
5.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
6.\"
7.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
9.\" are met:
10.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
16.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
17.\"    without specific prior written permission.
18.\"
19.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
20.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
21.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
22.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
23.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
24.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
25.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
26.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
27.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
28.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
29.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
30.\"
31.\"     @(#)adjtime.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: March 26 2019 $
34.Dt ADJTIME 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm adjtime
38.Nd correct the time to allow synchronization of the system clock
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.In sys/time.h
41.Ft int
42.Fn adjtime "const struct timeval *delta" "struct timeval *olddelta"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44.Fn adjtime
45makes small adjustments to the system time, as returned by
46.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
47advancing or retarding it by the time specified by the timeval
48.Fa delta .
49If
50.Fa delta
51is negative, the clock is slowed down by incrementing it more slowly
52than normal until the correction is complete.
53If
54.Fa delta
55is positive, a larger increment than normal is used.
56The skew used to perform the correction is generally a fraction of one percent.
57Thus, the time is always a monotonically increasing function.
58A time correction from an earlier call to
59.Fn adjtime
60may not be finished when
61.Fn adjtime
62is called again.
63If
64.Fa delta
65is
66.Dv NULL ,
67no adjustment is done.
68If
69.Fa olddelta
70is
71.Pf non- Dv NULL ,
72the number of microseconds still to be corrected from the earlier call
73is stored into
74.Pf * Fa olddelta .
75Setting the time with
76.Xr settimeofday 2
77cancels any in-progress time adjustment.
78.Pp
79This call may be used by time servers that synchronize the clocks
80of computers in a local area network.
81Such time servers would slow down the clocks of some machines
82and speed up the clocks of others to bring them to the average network time.
83.Pp
84Only the superuser may adjust the time using the
85.Fn adjtime
86function.
87.Sh RETURN VALUES
88.Rv -std
89.Sh ERRORS
90.Fn adjtime
91will fail if:
92.Bl -tag -width Er
93.It Bq Er EFAULT
94Either of the arguments point outside the process's allocated address space.
95.It Bq Er EINVAL
96The
97.Fa delta
98argument is
99.Pf non- Dv NULL
100and specifies a microsecond value less than zero or
101greater than or equal to one million.
102.It Bq Er EINVAL
103The
104.Fa delta
105argument is
106.Pf non- Dv NULL
107and represents an adjustment greater than
108.Dv INT64_MAX
109microseconds or less than
110.Dv INT64_MIN
111microseconds.
112.It Bq Er EPERM
113The
114.Fa delta
115argument is
116.Pf non- Dv NULL
117and the process's effective user ID is not that of the superuser.
118.El
119.Sh SEE ALSO
120.Xr date 1 ,
121.Xr adjfreq 2 ,
122.Xr gettimeofday 2 ,
123.Xr ntpd 8
124.Sh HISTORY
125The
126.Fn adjtime
127function call appeared in
128.Bx 4.3 .
129.Sh CAVEATS
130Other operating systems restrict calling
131.Fn adjtime
132to the superuser and might not allow requesting the current
133correction without specifying a new value.
134