nbdkit_parse_delay(3)

💖 nbdkit_parse_delay — bestie edition 💖

okay so real talk, this is the manual page for nbdkit_parse_delay(3), part of the nbdkit manuals, and it's literally the glow-up your delay-parsing life has been waiting for. sit down, hydrate, let's go ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

nbdkit_parse_delay — parse human-readable delays and sleeps for nbdkit

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🎀 SYNOPSIS 🎀

#include <nbdkit-plugin.h>

int nbdkit_parse_delay (const char *what, const char *str,
                        unsigned *sec, unsigned *nsec);

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so this little utility function nbdkit_parse_delay is here to parse configuration parameters on the nbdkit(1) command line that specify delays and sleeps. it's giving "please just let me sleep for 1.2 seconds without doing mental math" 💅

the str parameter is a string in one of these formats:

• 1
• 1.2
• "1.2s" — Seconds
• "1.2ms"
• "120ms" — Milliseconds
• "1.2us"
• "1.2μs"
• "120μs" — Microseconds
• "1ns" — Nanoseconds, the smallest possible time division for this function. that's the floor, bestie, there is no tinier unit here, periodt.

the what parameter gets printed in error messages to provide context, so future-you (or your very confused coworker) knows which setting was the problem 🫶

the output (sec, nsec) can be passed straight to nbdkit_nanosleep(3). chef's kiss, no conversion needed 👑

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🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

on success the function returns 0. then:

• if sec != NULL, set *sec to the parsed seconds.
• if nsec != NULL, set *nsec to the parsed nanoseconds.
• if either sec == NULL or nsec == NULL, the parsing is done but the corresponding result is discarded. so like, it still does the work, it just doesn't tell you. ghosting, basically 🙈

if there is an error it calls nbdkit_error(3) and returns -1.

⚠️ on error *sec and *nsec are always unchanged. like, do not touch, not even a little. your values stay exactly as they were, no cap 😭

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🦋 LANGUAGE BINDINGS 🦋

in nbdkit-ocaml-plugin(3):

NBDKit.parse_delay : string -> string -> int * int

in nbdkit-python-plugin(3):

import nbdkit
(sec, nsec) = nbdkit.parse_delay(what, str)

look at her, multilingual queen 🌍✨

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⭐ HISTORY ⭐

nbdkit_parse_delay was added in nbdkit 1.40. a relatively recent icon, we stan a fresh arrival 🎂

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

nbdkit(1), nbdkit_parse_bool(3), nbdkit_parse_int(3), nbdkit_parse_probability(3), nbdkit_parse_size(3), nbdkit_nanosleep(3), nbdkit-plugin(3), nbdkit-filter(3), nbdkit-delay-filter(1).

the whole parse family is here, iykyk 💜

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👑 AUTHORS 👑

Richard W.M. Jones — the moment, the myth, the legend 🫡

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💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

Copyright Red Hat

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📜 LICENSE 📜

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
• Neither the name of Red Hat nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY RED HAT AND CONTRIBUTORS ''AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL RED HAT OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

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and that's the whole page bestie!! this was nbdkit-1.48.1, dated 2026-08-29, and it is officially nbdkit_parse_delay(3) signing off 💅💖 mwah, go parse something cute ✨🦋🌸