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 datestring 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 gen-
               eral  you should instead use the specific relative 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', 'Monday', etc or they may
               be abbreviated to their first three letters, optionally followed by a period.  The
               special abbreviations '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 calendar 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. Otherwise it returns
       the number of seconds as described.

AUTHORS
       Originally written by Steven M. Bellovin <> while at the University of
       North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  Later tweaked by a couple of people on Usenet.  Completely
       overhauled by Rich $alz <> and Jim Berets <> in August,  1990.

       It has been modified extensively since imported to curl.

SEE ALSO
       GNUdate(1)



libcurl 7.0                                5 March 2001                           curl_getdate(3)