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systemd/man/systemd.time.xml
Lennart Poettering 21b3a0fcd1 util-lib: make timestamp generation and parsing reversible (#3869)
This patch improves parsing and generation of timestamps and calendar
specifications in two ways:

- The week day is now always printed in the abbreviated English form, instead
  of the locale's setting. This makes sure we can always parse the week day
  again, even if the locale is changed. Given that we don't follow locale
  settings for printing timestamps in any other way either (for example, we
  always use 24h syntax in order to make uniform parsing possible), it only
  makes sense to also stick to a generic, non-localized form for the timestamp,
  too.

- When parsing a timestamp, the local timezone (in its DST or non-DST name)
  may be specified, in addition to "UTC". Other timezones are still not
  supported however (not because we wouldn't want to, but mostly because libc
  offers no nice API for that). In itself this brings no new features, however
  it ensures that any locally formatted timestamp's timezone is also parsable
  again.

These two changes ensure that the output of format_timestamp() may always be
passed to parse_timestamp() and results in the original input. The related
flavours for usec/UTC also work accordingly. Calendar specifications are
extended in a similar way.

The man page is updated accordingly, in particular this removes the claim that
timestamps systemd prints wouldn't be parsable by systemd. They are now.

The man page previously showed invalid timestamps as examples. This has been
removed, as the man page shouldn't be a unit test, where such negative examples
would be useful. The man page also no longer mentions the names of internal
functions, such as format_timestamp_us() or UNIX error codes such as EINVAL.
2016-08-03 19:04:53 -04:00

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<?xml version='1.0'?> <!--*-nxml-*-->
<!DOCTYPE refentry PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.2//EN"
"http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.2/docbookx.dtd">
<!--
This file is part of systemd.
Copyright 2010 Lennart Poettering
systemd is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation; either version 2.1 of the License, or
(at your option) any later version.
systemd is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public License
along with systemd; If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
-->
<refentry id="systemd.time">
<refentryinfo>
<title>systemd.time</title>
<productname>systemd</productname>
<authorgroup>
<author>
<contrib>Developer</contrib>
<firstname>Lennart</firstname>
<surname>Poettering</surname>
<email>lennart@poettering.net</email>
</author>
</authorgroup>
</refentryinfo>
<refmeta>
<refentrytitle>systemd.time</refentrytitle>
<manvolnum>7</manvolnum>
</refmeta>
<refnamediv>
<refname>systemd.time</refname>
<refpurpose>Time and date specifications</refpurpose>
</refnamediv>
<refsect1>
<title>Description</title>
<para>In systemd, timestamps, time spans, and calendar events are
displayed and may be specified in closely related syntaxes.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Displaying Time Spans</title>
<para>Time spans refer to time durations. On display, systemd will present time spans as a space-separated series
of time values each suffixed by a time unit. Example:</para>
<programlisting>2h 30min</programlisting>
<para>All specified time values are meant to be added up. The above hence refers to 150 minutes. Display is
locale-independent, only English names for the time units are used.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Parsing Time Spans</title>
<para>When parsing, systemd will accept the same time span syntax.
Separating spaces may be omitted. The following time units are
understood:</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>usec, us</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>msec, ms</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>seconds, second, sec, s</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>minutes, minute, min, m</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>hours, hour, hr, h</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>days, day, d</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>weeks, week, w</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>months, month, M (defined as 30.44 days)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>years, year, y (defined as 365.25 days)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>If no time unit is specified, generally seconds are assumed, but some exceptions exist and are marked as
such. In a few cases <literal>ns</literal>, <literal>nsec</literal> is accepted too, where the granularity of the
time span permits this. Parsing is generally locale-independent, non-English names for the time units are not
accepted.</para>
<para>Examples for valid time span specifications:</para>
<programlisting>2 h
2hours
48hr
1y 12month
55s500ms
300ms20s 5day</programlisting>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Displaying Timestamps</title>
<para>Timestamps refer to specific, unique points in time. On
display, systemd will format these in the local timezone as
follows:</para>
<programlisting>Fri 2012-11-23 23:02:15 CET</programlisting>
<para>The weekday is printed in the abbreviated English language form. The formatting is locale-independent.</para>
<para>In some cases timestamps are shown in the UTC timezone instead of the local timezone, which is indicated via
the <literal>UTC</literal> timezone specifier in the output.</para>
<para>In some cases timestamps are shown with microsecond granularity. In this case the sub-second remainder is
separated by a full stop from the seconds component.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Parsing Timestamps</title>
<para>When parsing, systemd will accept a similar syntax, but expects no timezone specification, unless it is given
as the literal string <literal>UTC</literal> (for the UTC timezone) or is specified to be the locally configured
timezone. Other timezones than the local and UTC are not supported. The weekday specification is optional, but when
the weekday is specified, it must either be in the abbreviated (<literal>Wed</literal>) or non-abbreviated
(<literal>Wednesday</literal>) English language form (case does not matter), and is not subject to the locale
choice of the user. Either the date, or the time part may be omitted, in which case the current date or 00:00:00,
respectively, is assumed. The seconds component of the time may also be omitted, in which case ":00" is
assumed. Year numbers may be specified in full or may be abbreviated (omitting the century).</para>
<para>A timestamp is considered invalid if a weekday is specified and the date does not match the specified day of
the week.</para>
<para>When parsing, systemd will also accept a few special
placeholders instead of timestamps: <literal>now</literal> may be
used to refer to the current time (or of the invocation of the
command that is currently executed). <literal>today</literal>,
<literal>yesterday</literal>, and <literal>tomorrow</literal> refer to
00:00:00 of the current day, the day before, or the next day,
respectively.</para>
<para>When parsing, systemd will also accept relative time
specifications. A time span (see above) that is prefixed with
<literal>+</literal> is evaluated to the current time plus the
specified time span. Correspondingly, a time span that is prefixed
with <literal>-</literal> is evaluated to the current time minus
the specified time span. Instead of prefixing the time span with
<literal>+</literal> or <literal>-</literal>, it may also be
suffixed with a space and the word <literal>left</literal> or
<literal>ago</literal>.</para>
<para>Finally, a timespan prefixed with <literal>@</literal> is
evaluated relative to the UNIX time epoch 1st Jan, 1970,
00:00.</para>
<para>Examples for valid timestamps and their normalized form
(assuming the current time was 2012-11-23 18:15:22 and the timezone
was UTC+8, for example TZ=Asia/Shanghai):</para>
<programlisting>Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
2012-11-23 11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
2012-11-23 11:12:13 UTC → Fri 2012-11-23 19:12:13
2012-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
12-11-23 → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
11:12:13 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:13
11:12 → Fri 2012-11-23 11:12:00
now → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:22
today → Fri 2012-11-23 00:00:00
today UTC → Fri 2012-11-23 16:00:00
yesterday → Fri 2012-11-22 00:00:00
tomorrow → Fri 2012-11-24 00:00:00
+3h30min → Fri 2012-11-23 21:45:22
-5s → Fri 2012-11-23 18:15:17
11min ago → Fri 2012-11-23 18:04:22
@1395716396 → Tue 2014-03-25 03:59:56</programlisting>
<para>Note that timestamps displayed by remote systems with a non-matching timezone are usually not parsable
locally, as the timezone component is not understood (unless it happens to be <literal>UTC</literal>).</para>
<para>Timestamps may also be specified with microsecond granularity. The sub-second remainder is expected separated
by a full stop from the seconds component. Example:</para>
<programlisting>2014-03-25 03:59:56.654563</programlisting>
<para>In some cases, systemd will display a relative timestamp (relative to the current time, or the time of
invocation of the command) instead of or in addition to an absolute timestamp as described above. A relative
timestamp is formatted as follows:</para>
<programlisting>2 months 5 days ago</programlisting>
<para>Note that a relative timestamp is also accepted where a timestamp is expected (see above).</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>Calendar Events</title>
<para>Calendar events may be used to refer to one or more points
in time in a single expression. They form a superset of the
absolute timestamps explained above:</para>
<programlisting>Thu,Fri 2012-*-1,5 11:12:13</programlisting>
<para>The above refers to 11:12:13 of the first or fifth day of
any month of the year 2012, but only if that day is a Thursday or
Friday.</para>
<para>The weekday specification is optional. If specified, it
should consist of one or more English language weekday names,
either in the abbreviated (Wed) or non-abbreviated (Wednesday)
form (case does not matter), separated by commas. Specifying two
weekdays separated by <literal>..</literal> refers to a range of
continuous weekdays. <literal>,</literal> and <literal>..</literal>
may be combined freely.</para>
<para>In the date and time specifications, any component may be
specified as <literal>*</literal> in which case any value will
match. Alternatively, each component can be specified as a list of
values separated by commas. Values may also be suffixed with
<literal>/</literal> and a repetition value, which indicates that
the value itself and the value plus all multiples of the repetition value
are matched. Each component may also contain a range of values
separated by <literal>..</literal>.</para>
<para>The seconds component may contain decimal fractions both in
the value and the repetition. All fractions are rounded to 6
decimal places.</para>
<para>Either time or date specification may be omitted, in which
case the current day and 00:00:00 is implied, respectively. If the
second component is not specified, <literal>:00</literal> is
assumed.</para>
<para>A timezone specification is not expected, unless it is given as the literal string <literal>UTC</literal>, or
the local timezone, similar to the supported syntax of timestamps (see above). Non-local timezones except for UTC
are not supported.</para>
<para>The special expressions
<literal>minutely</literal>,
<literal>hourly</literal>, <literal>daily</literal>,
<literal>monthly</literal>, <literal>weekly</literal>,
<literal>yearly</literal>,
<literal>quarterly</literal>,
<literal>semiannually</literal> may be used as
calendar events which refer to
<literal>*-*-* *:*:00</literal>,
<literal>*-*-* *:00:00</literal>,
<literal>*-*-* 00:00:00</literal>,
<literal>*-*-01 00:00:00</literal>,
<literal>Mon *-*-* 00:00:00</literal>,
<literal>*-01-01 00:00:00</literal>,
<literal>*-01,04,07,10-01 00:00:00</literal> and
<literal>*-01,07-01 00:00:00</literal>, respectively.
</para>
<para>Examples for valid timestamps and their
normalized form:</para>
<programlisting> Sat,Thu,Mon..Wed,Sat..Sun → Mon..Thu,Sat,Sun *-*-* 00:00:00
Mon,Sun 12-*-* 2,1:23 → Mon,Sun 2012-*-* 01,02:23:00
Wed *-1 → Wed *-*-01 00:00:00
Wed..Wed,Wed *-1 → Wed *-*-01 00:00:00
Wed, 17:48 → Wed *-*-* 17:48:00
Wed..Sat,Tue 12-10-15 1:2:3 → Tue..Sat 2012-10-15 01:02:03
*-*-7 0:0:0 → *-*-07 00:00:00
10-15 → *-10-15 00:00:00
monday *-12-* 17:00 → Mon *-12-* 17:00:00
Mon,Fri *-*-3,1,2 *:30:45 → Mon,Fri *-*-01,02,03 *:30:45
12,14,13,12:20,10,30 → *-*-* 12,13,14:10,20,30:00
12..14:10,20,30 → *-*-* 12,13,14:10,20,30:00
mon,fri *-1/2-1,3 *:30:45 → Mon,Fri *-01/2-01,03 *:30:45
03-05 08:05:40 → *-03-05 08:05:40
08:05:40 → *-*-* 08:05:40
05:40 → *-*-* 05:40:00
Sat,Sun 12-05 08:05:40 → Sat,Sun *-12-05 08:05:40
Sat,Sun 08:05:40 → Sat,Sun *-*-* 08:05:40
2003-03-05 05:40 → 2003-03-05 05:40:00
05:40:23.4200004/3.1700005 → 05:40:23.420000/3.170001
2003-02..04-05 → 2003-02,03,04-05 00:00:00
2003-03-05 05:40 UTC → 2003-03-05 05:40:00 UTC
2003-03-05 → 2003-03-05 00:00:00
03-05 → *-03-05 00:00:00
hourly → *-*-* *:00:00
daily → *-*-* 00:00:00
daily UTC → *-*-* 00:00:00 UTC
monthly → *-*-01 00:00:00
weekly → Mon *-*-* 00:00:00
yearly → *-01-01 00:00:00
annually → *-01-01 00:00:00
*:2/3 → *-*-* *:02/3:00</programlisting>
<para>Calendar events are used by timer units, see
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>
for details.</para>
</refsect1>
<refsect1>
<title>See Also</title>
<para>
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>journalctl</refentrytitle><manvolnum>1</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.timer</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.unit</refentrytitle><manvolnum>5</manvolnum></citerefentry>,
<citerefentry><refentrytitle>systemd.directives</refentrytitle><manvolnum>7</manvolnum></citerefentry>
</para>
</refsect1>
</refentry>