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rtime(3)                    Library Functions Manual                   rtime(3)

NAME
       rtime - get time from a remote machine

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <rpc/auth_des.h>

       int rtime(struct sockaddr_in *addrp, struct rpc_timeval *timep,
                 struct rpc_timeval *timeout);

DESCRIPTION
       This  function  uses the Time Server Protocol as described in RFC 868 to
       obtain the time from a remote machine.

       The Time Server Protocol gives the time in seconds since 00:00:00 UTC, 1
       Jan 1900, and this function subtracts the appropriate constant in  order
       to  convert  the  result to seconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01 00:00:00
       +0000 (UTC).

       When timeout is non-NULL, the udp/time socket (port 37) is used.  Other-
       wise, the tcp/time socket (port 37) is used.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, 0 is returned, and the obtained 32-bit time value is  stored
       in  timep->tv_sec.  In case of error -1 is returned, and errno is set to
       indicate the error.

ERRORS
       All errors for underlying functions  (sendto(2),  poll(2),  recvfrom(2),
       connect(2), read(2)) can occur.  Moreover:

       EIO    The number of returned bytes is not 4.

       ETIMEDOUT
              The waiting time as defined in timeout has expired.

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
       ┌────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                                  Attribute     Value   │
       ├────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ rtime()                                    │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

NOTES
       Only IPv4 is supported.

       Some  in.timed  versions support only TCP.  Try the example program with
       use_tcp set to 1.

BUGS
       rtime() in glibc 2.2.5 and earlier does not work properly on 64-bit  ma-
       chines.

EXAMPLES
       This  example  requires that port 37 is up and open.  You may check that
       the time entry within /etc/inetd.conf is not commented out.

       The program connects to a computer called  "linux".   Using  "localhost"
       does not work.  The result is the localtime of the computer "linux".

       #include <errno.h>
       #include <netdb.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <string.h>
       #include <time.h>

       #include <rpc/auth_des.h>

       static int use_tcp = 0;
       static const char servername[] = "linux";

       int
       main(void)
       {
           int                 ret;
           time_t              t;
           struct hostent      *hent;
           struct rpc_timeval  time1 = {0, 0};
           struct rpc_timeval  timeout = {1, 0};
           struct sockaddr_in  name;

           memset(&name, 0, sizeof(name));
           sethostent(1);
           hent = gethostbyname(servername);
           memcpy(&name.sin_addr, hent->h_addr, hent->h_length);

           ret = rtime(&name, &time1, use_tcp ? NULL : &timeout);
           if (ret < 0)
               perror("rtime error");
           else {
               t = time1.tv_sec;
               printf("%s\n", ctime(&t));
           }

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO
       ntpdate(1), inetd(8)

Linux man-pages 6.9.1              2024-06-15                          rtime(3)

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