clock(3tcl) Tcl Built-In Commands clock(3tcl)
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NAME
clock - Obtain and manipulate dates and times
SYNOPSIS
package require Tcl 8.5
clock add timeVal ?count unit...? ?-option value?
clock clicks ?-option?
clock format timeVal ?-option value...?
clock microseconds
clock milliseconds
clock scan inputString ?-option value...?
clock seconds
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DESCRIPTION
The clock command performs several operations that obtain and manipu-
late values that represent times. The command supports several subcom-
mands that determine what action is carried out by the command.
clock add timeVal ?count unit...? ?-option value?
Adds a (possibly negative) offset to a time that is expressed as
an integer number of seconds. See CLOCK ARITHMETIC for a full
description.
clock clicks ?-option?
If no -option argument is supplied, returns a high-resolution
time value as a system-dependent integer value. The unit of the
value is system-dependent but should be the highest resolution
clock available on the system such as a CPU cycle counter. See
HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.
If the -option argument is -milliseconds, then the command is
synonymous with clock milliseconds (see below). This usage is
obsolete, and clock milliseconds is to be considered the pre-
ferred way of obtaining a count of milliseconds.
If the -option argument is -microseconds, then the command is
synonymous with clock microseconds (see below). This usage is
obsolete, and clock microseconds is to be considered the pre-
ferred way of obtaining a count of microseconds.
clock format timeVal ?-option value...?
Formats a time that is expressed as an integer number of seconds
into a format intended for consumption by users or external pro-
grams. See FORMATTING TIMES for a full description.
clock microseconds
Returns the current time as an integer number of microseconds.
See HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.
clock milliseconds
Returns the current time as an integer number of milliseconds.
See HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.
clock scan inputString ?-option value...?
Scans a time that is expressed as a character string and pro-
duces an integer number of seconds. See SCANNING TIMES for a
full description.
clock seconds
Returns the current time as an integer number of seconds.
PARAMETERS
count An integer representing a count of some unit of time. See CLOCK
ARITHMETIC for the details.
timeVal
An integer value passed to the clock command that represents an
absolute time as a number of seconds from the epoch time of 1
January 1970, 00:00 UTC. Note that the count of seconds does
not include any leap seconds; seconds are counted as if each UTC
day has exactly 86400 seconds. Tcl responds to leap seconds by
speeding or slowing its clock by a tiny fraction for some min-
utes until it is back in sync with UTC; its data model does not
represent minutes that have 59 or 61 seconds.
unit One of the words, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,
or years, or any unique prefix of such a word. Used in conjunc-
tion with count to identify an interval of time, for example, 3
seconds or 1 year.
OPTIONS
-base time
Specifies that any relative times present in a clock scan com-
mand are to be given relative to time. time must be expressed
as a count of nominal seconds from the epoch time of 1 January
1970, 00:00 UTC.
-format format
Specifies the desired output format for clock format or the ex-
pected input format for clock scan. The format string consists
of any number of characters other than the per-cent sign (“%”)
interspersed with any number of format groups, which are two-
character sequences beginning with the per-cent sign. The per-
missible format groups, and their interpretation, are described
under FORMAT GROUPS.
On clock format, the default format is
%a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y
On clock scan, the lack of a -format option indicates that a
“free format scan” is requested; see FREE FORM SCAN for a de-
scription of what happens.
-gmt boolean
If boolean is true, specifies that a time specified to clock
add, clock format or clock scan should be processed in UTC. If
boolean is false, the processing defaults to the local time
zone. This usage is obsolete; the correct current usage is to
specify the UTC time zone with “-timezone :UTC” or any of the
equivalent ways to specify it.
-locale localeName
Specifies that locale-dependent scanning and formatting (and
date arithmetic for dates preceding the adoption of the Grego-
rian calendar) is to be done in the locale identified by locale-
Name. The locale name may be any of the locales acceptable to
the msgcat package, or it may be the special name system, which
represents the current locale of the process, or the null
string, which represents Tcl's default locale.
The effect of locale on scanning and formatting is discussed in
the descriptions of the individual format groups under FORMAT
GROUPS. The effect of locale on clock arithmetic is discussed
under CLOCK ARITHMETIC.
-timezone zoneName
Specifies that clock arithmetic, formatting, and scanning are to
be done according to the rules for the time zone specified by
zoneName. The permissible values, and their interpretation, are
discussed under TIME ZONES. On subcommands that expect a -time-
zone argument, the default is to use the current time zone. The
current time zone is determined, in order of preference, by:
[1] the environment variable TCL_TZ.
[2] the environment variable TZ.
[3] on Windows systems, the time zone settings from the Con-
trol Panel.
If none of these is present, the C localtime and mktime functions are
used to attempt to convert times between local and Greenwich. On
32-bit systems, this approach is likely to have bugs, particularly for
times that lie outside the window (approximately the years 1902 to
2037) that can be represented in a 32-bit integer.
CLOCK ARITHMETIC
The clock add command performs clock arithmetic on a value (expressed
as nominal seconds from the epoch time of 1 January 1970, 00:00 UTC)
given as its first argument. The remaining arguments (other than the
possible -timezone, -locale and -gmt options) are integers and keywords
in alternation, where the keywords are chosen from seconds, minutes,
hours, days, weeks, months, or years, or any unique prefix of such a
word.
Addition of seconds, minutes and hours is fairly straightforward; the
given time increment (times sixty for minutes, or 3600 for hours) is
simply added to the timeVal given to the clock add command. The result
is interpreted as a nominal number of seconds from the Epoch.
Surprising results may be obtained when crossing a point at which a
leap second is inserted or removed; the clock add command simply ig-
nores leap seconds and therefore assumes that times come in sequence,
23:59:58, 23:59:59, 00:00:00. (This assumption is handled by the fact
that Tcl's model of time reacts to leap seconds by speeding or slowing
the clock by a minuscule amount until Tcl's time is back in step with
the world.
The fact that adding and subtracting hours is defined in terms of abso-
lute time means that it will add fixed amounts of time in time zones
that observe summer time (Daylight Saving Time). For example, the fol-
lowing code sets the value of x to 04:00:00 because the clock has
changed in the interval in question.
set s [clock scan {2004-10-30 05:00:00} \
-format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
-timezone :America/New_York]
set a [clock add $s 24 hours -timezone :America/New_York]
set x [clock format $a \
-format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]
Adding and subtracting days and weeks is accomplished by converting the
given time to a calendar day and time of day in the appropriate time
zone and locale. The requisite number of days (weeks are converted to
days by multiplying by seven) is added to the calendar day, and the
date and time are then converted back to a count of seconds from the
epoch time.
Adding and subtracting a given number of days across the point that the
time changes at the start or end of summer time (Daylight Saving Time)
results in the same local time on the day in question. For instance,
the following code sets the value of x to 05:00:00.
set s [clock scan {2004-10-30 05:00:00} \
-format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
-timezone :America/New_York]
set a [clock add $s 1 day -timezone :America/New_York]
set x [clock format $a \
-format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]
In cases of ambiguity, where the same local time happens twice on the
same day, the earlier time is used. In cases where the conversion
yields an impossible time (for instance, 02:30 during the Spring Day-
light Saving Time change using US rules), the time is converted as if
the clock had not changed. Thus, the following code will set the value
of x to 03:30:00.
set s [clock scan {2004-04-03 02:30:00} \
-format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
-timezone :America/New_York]
set a [clock add $s 1 day -timezone :America/New_York]
set x [clock format $a \
-format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]
Adding a given number of days or weeks works correctly across the con-
version between the Julian and Gregorian calendars; the omitted days
are skipped. The following code sets z to 1752-09-14.
set x [clock scan 1752-09-02 -format %Y-%m-%d -locale en_US]
set y [clock add $x 1 day -locale en_US]
set z [clock format $y -format %Y-%m-%d -locale en_US]
In the bizarre case that adding the given number of days yields a date
that does not exist because it falls within the dropped days of the Ju-
lian-to-Gregorian conversion, the date is converted as if it was on the
Julian calendar.
Adding a number of months, or a number of years, is similar; it con-
verts the given time to a calendar date and time of day. It then adds
the requisite number of months or years, and reconverts the resulting
date and time of day to an absolute time.
If the resulting date is impossible because the month has too few days
(for example, when adding 1 month to 31 January), the last day of the
month is substituted. Thus, adding 1 month to 31 January will result
in 28 February in a common year or 29 February in a leap year.
The rules for handling anomalies relating to summer time and to the
Gregorian calendar are the same when adding/subtracting months and
years as they are when adding/subtracting days and weeks.
If multiple count unit pairs are present on the command, they are eval-
uated consecutively, from left to right.
HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS
Most of the subcommands supported by the clock command deal with times
represented as a count of seconds from the epoch time, and this is the
representation that clock seconds returns. There are three exceptions,
which are all intended for use where higher-resolution times are re-
quired. clock milliseconds returns the count of milliseconds from the
epoch time, and clock microseconds returns the count of microseconds
from the epoch time. In addition, there is a clock clicks command that
returns a platform-dependent high-resolution timer. Unlike clock sec-
onds and clock milliseconds, the value of clock clicks is not guaran-
teed to be tied to any fixed epoch; it is simply intended to be the
most precise interval timer available, and is intended only for rela-
tive timing studies such as benchmarks.
FORMATTING TIMES
The clock format command produces times for display to a user or writ-
ing to an external medium. The command accepts times that are ex-
pressed in seconds from the epoch time of 1 January 1970, 00:00 UTC, as
returned by clock seconds, clock scan, clock add, file atime or file
mtime.
If a -format option is present, the following argument is a string that
specifies how the date and time are to be formatted. The string con-
sists of any number of characters other than the per-cent sign (“%”)
interspersed with any number of format groups, which are two-character
sequences beginning with the per-cent sign. The permissible format
groups, and their interpretation, are described under FORMAT GROUPS.
If a -timezone option is present, the following argument is a string
that specifies the time zone in which the date and time are to be for-
matted. As an alternative to “-timezone :UTC”, the obsolete usage
“-gmt true” may be used. See TIME ZONES for the permissible variants
for the time zone.
If a -locale option is present, the following argument is a string that
specifies the locale in which the time is to be formatted, in the same
format that is used for the msgcat package. Note that the default, if
-locale is not specified, is the root locale {} rather than the current
locale. The current locale may be obtained by using -locale current.
In addition, some platforms support a system locale that reflects the
user's current choices. For instance, on Windows, the format that the
user has selected from dates and times in the Control Panel can be ob-
tained by using the system locale. On platforms that do not define a
user selection of date and time formats separate from LC_TIME, -locale
system is synonymous with -locale current.
SCANNING TIMES
The clock scan command accepts times that are formatted as strings and
converts them to counts of seconds from the epoch time of 1 January
1970, 00:00 UTC. It normally takes a -format option that is followed
by a string describing the expected format of the input. (See FREE
FORM SCAN for the effect of clock scan without such an argument.) The
string consists of any number of characters other than the per-cent
sign (“%”), interspersed with any number of format groups, which are
two-character sequences beginning with the per-cent sign. The permis-
sible format groups, and their interpretation, are described under FOR-
MAT GROUPS.
If a -timezone option is present, the following argument is a string
that specifies the time zone in which the date and time are to be in-
terpreted. As an alternative to -timezone :UTC, the obsolete usage
-gmt true may be used. See TIME ZONES for the permissible variants for
the time zone.
If a -locale option is present, the following argument is a string that
specifies the locale in which the time is to be interpreted, in the
same format that is used for the msgcat package. Note that the de-
fault, if -locale is not specified, is the root locale {} rather than
the current locale. The current locale may be obtained by using -lo-
cale current. In addition, some platforms support a system locale that
reflects the user's current choices. For instance, on Windows, the
format that the user has selected from dates and times in the Control
Panel can be obtained by using the system locale. On platforms that do
not define a user selection of date and time formats separate from
LC_TIME, -locale system is synonymous with -locale current.
If a -base option is present, the following argument is a time (ex-
pressed in seconds from the epoch time) that is used as a base time for
interpreting relative times. If no -base option is present, the base
time is the current time.
Scanning of times in fixed format works by determining three things:
the date, the time of day, and the time zone. These three are then
combined into a point in time, which is returned as the number of sec-
onds from the epoch.
Before scanning begins, the format string is preprocessed to replace
%c, %Ec, %x, %Ex, %X. %Ex, %r, %R, %T, %D, %EY and %+ format groups
with counterparts that are appropriate to the current locale and con-
tain none of the above groups. For instance, %D will (in the en_US lo-
cale) be replaced with %m/%d/%Y.
The date is determined according to the fields that are present in the
preprocessed format string. In order of preference:
[1] If the string contains a %s format group, representing seconds
from the epoch, that group is used to determine the date.
[2] If the string contains a %J format group, representing the Ju-
lian Day Number, that group is used to determine the date.
[3] If the string contains a complete set of format groups specify-
ing century, year, month, and day of month; century, year, and
day of year; or ISO8601 fiscal year, week of year, and day of
week; those groups are combined and used to determine the date.
If more than one complete set is present, the one at the right-
most position in the string is used.
[4] If the string lacks a century but contains a set of format
groups specifying year of century, month and day of month; year
of century and day of year; or two-digit ISO8601 fiscal year,
week of year, and day of week; those groups are combined and
used to determine the date. If more than one complete set is
present, the one at the rightmost position in the string is
used. The year is presumed to lie in the range 1938 to 2037 in-
clusive.
[5] If the string entirely lacks any specification for the year (or
contains the year only on the locale's alternative calendar) and
contains a set of format groups specifying month and day of
month, day of year, or week of year and day of week, those
groups are combined and used to determine the date. If more
than one complete set is present, the one at the rightmost posi-
tion in the string is used. The year is determined by inter-
preting the base time in the given time zone.
[6] If the string contains none of the above sets, but has a day of
the month or day of the week, the day of the month or day of the
week are used to determine the date by interpreting the base
time in the given time zone and returning the given day of the
current week or month. (The week runs from Monday to Sunday,
ISO8601-fashion.) If both day of month and day of week are
present, the day of the month takes priority.
[7] If none of the above rules results in a usable date, the date of
the base time in the given time zone is used.
The time is also determined according to the fields that are present in
the preprocessed format string. In order of preference:
[1] If the string contains a %s format group, representing seconds
from the epoch, that group determines the time of day.
[2] If the string contains either an hour on the 24-hour clock or an
hour on the 12-hour clock plus an AM/PM indicator, that hour de-
termines the hour of the day. If the string further contains a
group specifying the minute of the hour, that group combines
with the hour. If the string further contains a group specify-
ing the second of the minute, that group combines with the hour
and minute.
[3] If the string contains neither a %s format group nor a group
specifying the hour of the day, then midnight (00:00, the start
of the given date) is used. The time zone is determined by ei-
ther the -timezone or -gmt options, or by using the current time
zone.
If a format string lacks a %z or %Z format group, it is possible for
the time to be ambiguous because it appears twice in the same day, once
without and once with Daylight Saving Time. If this situation occurs,
the first occurrence of the time is chosen. (For this reason, it is
wise to have the input string contain the time zone when converting lo-
cal times. This caveat does not apply to UTC times.)
If the interpretation of the groups yields an impossible time because a
field is out of range, enough of that field's unit will be added to or
subtracted from the time to bring it in range. Thus, if attempting to
scan or format day 0 of the month, one day will be subtracted from day
1 of the month, yielding the last day of the previous month.
If the interpretation of the groups yields an impossible time because a
Daylight Saving Time change skips over that time, or an ambiguous time
because a Daylight Saving Time change skips back so that the clock ob-
serves the given time twice, and no time zone specifier (%z or %Z) is
present in the format, the time is interpreted as if the clock had not
changed.
FORMAT GROUPS
The following format groups are recognized by the clock scan and clock
format commands.
%a On output, produces an abbreviation (e.g., Mon) for the day of
the week in the given locale. On input, matches the name of the
day of the week in the given locale (in either abbreviated or
full form, or any unique prefix of either form).
%A On output, produces the full name (e.g., Monday) of the day of
the week in the given locale. On input, matches the name of the
day of the week in the given locale (in either abbreviated or
full form, or any unique prefix of either form).
%b On output, produces an abbreviation (e.g., Jan) for the name of
the month in the given locale. On input, matches the name of
the month in the given locale (in either abbreviated or full
form, or any unique prefix of either form).
%B On output, produces the full name (e.g., January) of the month
in the given locale. On input, matches the name of the month in
the given locale (in either abbreviated or full form, or any
unique prefix of either form).
%c On output, produces a localized representation of date and time
of day; the localized representation is expected to use the Gre-
gorian calendar. On input, matches whatever %c produces.
%C On output, produces the number of the century in Indo-Arabic nu-
merals. On input, matches one or two digits, possibly with
leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of the
century.
%d On output, produces the number of the day of the month, as two
decimal digits. On input, matches one or two digits, possibly
with leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of
the day of the month.
%D This format group is synonymous with %m/%d/%Y. It should be
used only in exchanging data within the en_US locale, since
other locales typically do not use this order for the fields of
the date.
%e On output, produces the number of the day of the month, as one
or two decimal digits (with a leading blank for one-digit
dates). On input, matches one or two digits, possibly with
leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of the
day of the month.
%Ec On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
date and time of day in the locale's alternative calendar. On
input, matches whatever %Ec produces. The locale's alternative
calendar need not be the Gregorian calendar.
%EC On output, produces a locale-dependent name of an era in the lo-
cale's alternative calendar. On input, matches the name of the
era or any unique prefix.
%EE On output, produces the string B.C.E. or C.E., or a string of
the same meaning in the locale, to indicate whether %Y refers to
years before or after Year 1 of the Common Era. On input, ac-
cepts the string B.C.E., B.C., C.E., A.D., or the abbreviation
appropriate to the current locale, and uses it to fix whether %Y
refers to years before or after Year 1 of the Common Era.
%Ex On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
date in the locale's alternative calendar. On input, matches
whatever %Ex produces. The locale's alternative calendar need
not be the Gregorian calendar.
%EX On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
time of day in the locale's alternative numerals. On input,
matches whatever %EX produces.
%Ey On output, produces a locale-dependent number of the year of the
era in the locale's alternative calendar and numerals. On in-
put, matches such a number.
%EY On output, produces a representation of the year in the locale's
alternative calendar and numerals. On input, matches what %EY
produces. Often synonymous with %EC%Ey.
%g On output, produces a two-digit year number suitable for use
with the week-based ISO8601 calendar; that is, the year number
corresponds to the week number produced by %V. On input, ac-
cepts such a two-digit year number, possibly with leading white-
space.
%G On output, produces a four-digit year number suitable for use
with the week-based ISO8601 calendar; that is, the year number
corresponds to the week number produced by %V. On input, ac-
cepts such a four-digit year number, possibly with leading
whitespace.
%h This format group is synonymous with %b.
%H On output, produces a two-digit number giving the hour of the
day (00-23) on a 24-hour clock. On input, accepts such a num-
ber.
%I On output, produces a two-digit number giving the hour of the
day (12-11) on a 12-hour clock. On input, accepts such a num-
ber.
%j On output, produces a three-digit number giving the day of the
year (001-366). On input, accepts such a number.
%J On output, produces a string of digits giving the Julian Day
Number. On input, accepts a string of digits and interprets it
as a Julian Day Number. The Julian Day Number is a count of the
number of calendar days that have elapsed since 1 January, 4713
BCE of the proleptic Julian calendar. The epoch time of 1 Janu-
ary 1970 corresponds to Julian Day Number 2440588.
%k On output, produces a one- or two-digit number giving the hour
of the day (0-23) on a 24-hour clock. On input, accepts such a
number.
%l On output, produces a one- or two-digit number giving the hour
of the day (12-11) on a 12-hour clock. On input, accepts such a
number.
%m On output, produces the number of the month (01-12) with exactly
two digits. On input, accepts two digits and interprets them as
the number of the month.
%M On output, produces the number of the minute of the hour (00-59)
with exactly two digits. On input, accepts two digits and in-
terprets them as the number of the minute of the hour.
%N On output, produces the number of the month (1-12) with one or
two digits, and a leading blank for one-digit dates. On input,
accepts one or two digits, possibly with leading whitespace, and
interprets them as the number of the month.
%Od, %Oe, %OH, %OI, %Ok, %Ol, %Om, %OM, %OS, %Ou, %Ow, %Oy
All of these format groups are synonymous with their counter-
parts without the “O”, except that the string is produced and
parsed in the locale-dependent alternative numerals.
%p On output, produces an indicator for the part of the day, AM or
PM, appropriate to the given locale. If the script of the given
locale supports multiple letterforms, lowercase is preferred.
On input, matches the representation AM or PM in the given lo-
cale, in either case.
%P On output, produces an indicator for the part of the day, am or
pm, appropriate to the given locale. If the script of the given
locale supports multiple letterforms, uppercase is preferred.
On input, matches the representation AM or PM in the given lo-
cale, in either case.
%Q This format group is reserved for internal use within the Tcl
library.
%r On output, produces a locale-dependent time of day representa-
tion on a 12-hour clock. On input, accepts whatever %r produces.
%R On output, the time in 24-hour notation (%H:%M). For a version
including the seconds, see %T below. On input, accepts whatever
%R produces.
%s On output, simply formats the timeVal argument as a decimal in-
teger and inserts it into the output string. On input, accepts
a decimal integer and uses is as the time value without any fur-
ther processing. Since %s uniquely determines a point in time,
it overrides all other input formats.
%S On output, produces a two-digit number of the second of the
minute (00-59). On input, accepts two digits and uses them as
the second of the minute.
%t On output, produces a TAB character. On input, matches a TAB
character.
%T Synonymous with %H:%M:%S.
%u On output, produces the number of the day of the week (1→Monday,
7→Sunday). On input, accepts a single digit and interprets it as
the day of the week. Sunday may be either 0 or 7.
%U On output, produces the ordinal number of the week of the year
(00-53). The first Sunday of the year is the first day of week
01. On input accepts two digits which are otherwise ignored.
This format group is never used in determining an input date.
This interpretation of the week of the year was once common in
US banking but is now largely obsolete. See %V for the ISO8601
week number.
%V On output, produces the number of the ISO8601 week as a two
digit number (01-53). Week 01 is the week containing January 4;
or the first week of the year containing at least 4 days; or the
week containing the first Thursday of the year (the three state-
ments are equivalent). Each week begins on a Monday. On input,
accepts the ISO8601 week number.
%w On output, produces the ordinal number of the day of the week
(Sunday==0; Saturday==6). On input, accepts a single digit and
interprets it as the day of the week; Sunday may be represented
as either 0 or 7. Note that %w is not the ISO8601 weekday num-
ber, which is produced and accepted by %u.
%W On output, produces a week number (00-53) within the year; week
01 begins on the first Monday of the year. On input, accepts two
digits, which are otherwise ignored. This format group is never
used in determining an input date. It is not the ISO8601 week
number; that week is produced and accepted by %V.
%x On output, produces the date in a locale-dependent representa-
tion. On input, accepts whatever %x produces and is used to de-
termine calendar date.
%X On output, produces the time of day in a locale-dependent repre-
sentation. On input, accepts whatever %X produces and is used to
determine time of day.
%y On output, produces the two-digit year of the century. On input,
accepts two digits, and is used to determine calendar date. The
date is presumed to lie between 1938 and 2037 inclusive. Note
that %y does not yield a year appropriate for use with the
ISO8601 week number %V; programs should use %g for that purpose.
%Y On output, produces the four-digit calendar year. On input, ac-
cepts four digits and may be used to determine calendar date.
Note that %Y does not yield a year appropriate for use with the
ISO8601 week number %V; programs should use %G for that purpose.
%z On output, produces the current time zone, expressed in hours
and minutes east (+hhmm) or west (-hhmm) of Greenwich. On input,
accepts a time zone specifier (see TIME ZONES below) that will
be used to determine the time zone.
%Z On output, produces the current time zone's name, possibly
translated to the given locale. On input, accepts a time zone
specifier (see TIME ZONES below) that will be used to determine
the time zone. This option should, in general, be used on input
only when parsing RFC822 dates. Other uses are fraught with am-
biguity; for instance, the string BST may represent British Sum-
mer Time or Brazilian Standard Time. It is recommended that
date/time strings for use by computers use numeric time zones
instead.
%% On output, produces a literal “%” character. On input, matches a
literal “%” character.
%+ Synonymous with “%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y”.
TIME ZONES
When the clock command is processing a local time, it has several pos-
sible sources for the time zone to use. In order of preference, they
are:
[1] A time zone specified inside a string being parsed and matched
by a %z or %Z format group.
[2] A time zone specified with the -timezone option to the clock
command (or, equivalently, by -gmt 1).
[3] A time zone specified in an environment variable TCL_TZ.
[4] A time zone specified in an environment variable TZ.
[5] The local time zone from the Control Panel on Windows systems.
[6] The C library's idea of the local time zone, as defined by the
mktime and localtime functions.
In case [1] only, the string is tested to see if it is one of the
strings:
gmt ut utc bst wet wat at
nft nst ndt ast adt est edt
cst cdt mst mdt pst pdt yst
ydt hst hdt cat ahst nt idlw
cet cest met mewt mest swt sst
eet eest bt it zp4 zp5 ist
zp6 wast wadt jt cct jst cast
cadt east eadt gst nzt nzst nzdt
idle
If it is a string in the above list, it designates a known time zone,
and is interpreted as such.
For time zones in case [1] that do not match any of the above strings,
and always for cases [2]-[6], the following rules apply.
If the time zone begins with a colon, it is one of a standardized list
of names like :America/New_York that give the rules for various lo-
cales. A complete list of the location names is too lengthy to be
listed here. On most Tcl installations, the definitions of the loca-
tions are to be found in named files in the directory
“/no_backup/tools/lib/tcl8.5/clock/tzdata”. On some Unix systems,
these files are omitted, and the definitions are instead obtained from
system files in “/usr/share/zoneinfo”, “/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo” or
“/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo”. As a special case, the name :localtime
refers to the local time zone as defined by the C library.
A time zone string consisting of a plus or minus sign followed by four
or six decimal digits is interpreted as an offset in hours, minutes,
and seconds (if six digits are present) from UTC. The plus sign de-
notes a sign east of Greenwich; the minus sign one west of Greenwich.
A time zone string conforming to the Posix specification of the TZ en-
vironment variable will be recognized. The specification may be found
at https://pubs.opengroup.org/on-
linepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap08.html.
If the Posix time zone string contains a DST (Daylight Savings Time)
part, but doesn't contain a rule stating when DST starts or ends, then
default rules are used. For Timezones with an offset between 0 and +12,
the current European/Russian rules are used, otherwise the current US
rules are used. In Europe (offset +0 to +2) the switch to summertime is
done each last Sunday in March at 1:00 GMT, and the switch back is each
last Sunday in October at 2:00 GMT. In Russia (offset +3 to +12), the
switch dates are the same, only the switch to summertime is at 2:00 lo-
cal time, and the switch back is at 3:00 local time in all time zones.
The US switch to summertime takes place each second Sunday in March at
2:00 local time, and the switch back is each first Sunday in November
at 3:00 local time. These default rules mean that in all European, Rus-
sian and US (or compatible) time zones, DST calculations will be cor-
rect for dates in 2007 and later, unless in the future the rules change
again.
Any other time zone string is processed by prefixing a colon and at-
tempting to use it as a location name, as above.
LOCALIZATION
Developers wishing to localize the date and time formatting and parsing
are referred to https://tip.tcl-lang.org/173 for a specification.
FREE FORM SCAN
If the clock scan command is invoked without a -format option, then it
requests a free-form scan. This form of scan is deprecated. The rea-
son for the deprecation is that there are too many ambiguities. (Does
the string “2000” represent a year, a time of day, or a quantity?) No
set of rules for interpreting free-form dates and times has been found
to give unsurprising results in all cases.
If free-form scan is used, only the -base and -gmt options are ac-
cepted. The -timezone and -locale options will result in an error if
-format is not supplied.
For the benefit of users who need to understand legacy code that uses
free-form scan, the documentation for how free-form scan interprets a
string is included here:
If only a time is specified, the current date is assumed. If the in-
putString does not contain a time zone mnemonic, the local time zone is
assumed, unless the -gmt argument is true, in which case the clock
value is calculated assuming that the specified time is relative to
Greenwich Mean Time. -gmt, if specified, affects only the computed
time value; it does not impact the interpretation of -base.
If the -base flag is specified, the next argument should contain an in-
teger clock value. Only the date in this value is used, not the time.
This is useful for determining the time on a specific day or doing
other date-relative conversions.
The inputString argument consists of zero or more specifications of the
following form:
time A time of day, which is of the form: hh?:mm?:ss?? ?meridian?
?zone? or hhmm ?meridian? ?zone? If no meridian is specified,
hh is interpreted on a 24-hour clock.
date A specific month and day with optional year. The acceptable
formats are “mm/dd?/yy?”, “monthname dd?, yy?”, “day, dd month-
name ?yy?”, “dd monthname yy”, “?CC?yymmdd”, and “dd-month-
name-?CC?yy”. The default year is the current year. If the
year is less than 100, we treat the years 00-68 as 2000-2068 and
the years 69-99 as 1969-1999. Not all platforms can represent
the years 38-70, so an error may result if these years are used.
ISO 8601 point-in-time
An ISO 8601 point-in-time specification, such as “CCyymmddThh-
mmss,” where T is the literal “T”, “CCyymmdd hhmmss”, “CCyymmd-
dThh:mm:ss”, or “CCyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.” Note that only these
four formats are accepted. The command does not accept the full
range of point-in-time specifications specified in ISO8601.
Other formats can be recognized by giving an explicit -format
option to the clock scan command.
relative time
A specification relative to the current time. The format is
number unit. Acceptable units are year, fortnight, month, week,
day, hour, minute (or min), and second (or sec). The unit can
be specified as a singular or plural, as in 3 weeks. These mod-
ifiers may also be specified: tomorrow, yesterday, today, now,
last, this, next, ago.
The actual date is calculated according to the following steps.
First, any absolute date and/or time is processed and converted. Using
that time as the base, day-of-week specifications are added. Next,
relative specifications are used. If a date or day is specified, and
no absolute or relative time is given, midnight is used. Finally, a
correction is applied so that the correct hour of the day is produced
after allowing for daylight savings time differences and the correct
date is given when going from the end of a long month to a short month.
SEE ALSO
msgcat(3tcl)
KEYWORDS
clock, date, time
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2004 Kevin B. Kenny <kennykb@acm.org>. All rights reserved.
Tcl 8.5 clock(3tcl)
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