BINTIMEADD(9)

💖 BINTIMEADD(9) 💖

okay bestie, so this is from the Kernel Developer's Manual — section 9, kernel land, big brain hours 👑 — and it's literally all about poking at kernel time structures without losing your mind. stay with me, it's gonna slay 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

bintimecmp, bintimesub, bintimeadd, bintimeaddfrac, BINTIME_TO_TIMEVAL, BINTIME_TO_TIMESPEC, TIMEVAL_TO_BINTIME, TIMESPEC_TO_BINTIME — these are the little helpers that let you manipulate kernel time structures, bestie 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

so first, you gotta bring in the header, no cap:

#include <sys/time.h>

and then here's the whole squad, exactly as they show up:

int
bintimecmp(struct bintime *a, struct bintime *b, operator);

void
bintimesub(const struct bintime *a, const struct bintime *b,
    struct bintime *c);

void
bintimeadd(const struct bintime *a, const struct bintime *b,
    struct bintime *c);

void
bintimeaddfrac(const struct bintime *a, uint64_t fraction,
    struct bintime *b);

void
BINTIME_TO_TIMEVAL(const struct bintime *bt, struct timeval *tv);

void
BINTIME_TO_TIMESPEC(const struct bintime *bt, struct timespec *ts);

void
TIMEVAL_TO_BINTIME(const struct timeval *tv, struct bintime *bt);

void
TIMESPEC_TO_BINTIME(const struct timespec *ts, struct bintime *bt);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

bestie, the whole point of these functions is that they simplify the use of bintime structures and the conversion to and from other time representations. that's it, that's the vibe 💫

The following functions are available — line them up, they're all iconic:

• bintimecmp(a, b, operator) — test if the expression a operator b is true, where operator is one of <, <=, ==, !=, >=, or >. like a vibe check for time comparisons fr fr ⭐
• bintimesub(a, b, c) — subtract b from a and store the result in c. bye subtraction anxiety, hello c 💀
• bintimeadd(a, b, c) — add b to a and store the result in c. math but make it cute 🎀
• bintimeaddfrac(a, fraction, b) — add fraction fractional seconds to a and store the result in b. and heads up, a fractional second is equal to 1 / (2^64) seconds — tiny tiny tiny, microscopic even 🔥
• BINTIME_TO_TIMEVAL(bt, tv) — convert bt to a struct timeval and store the result in tv. glow-up from one struct to another ✨
• BINTIME_TO_TIMESPEC(bt, ts) — convert bt to a struct timespec and store the result in ts. same energy, different struct 🌈
• TIMEVAL_TO_BINTIME(tv, bt) — convert tv to a struct bintime and store the result in bt. coming back the other way, main character energy 👑
• TIMESPEC_TO_BINTIME(ts, bt) — convert ts to a struct bintime and store the result in bt. round trip complete, we love to see it 💜

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🌟 RETURN VALUES 🌟

bintimecmp() returns 1 if the tested condition holds or 0 otherwise. that's it. binary queen behavior, periodt 💅

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🍓 CODE REFERENCES 🍓

These functions are implemented in the file sys/sys/time.h — that's the spot, go look, iykyk 📖

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🧚 SEE ALSO 🧚

okay so go read these too, they're literally right there:

• timeradd(3)
• microtime(9)
• tc_init(9)
• timeout(9)

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🌸 HISTORY 🌸

Predecessors to these functions first appeared in FreeBSD 5.0 and were ported to OpenBSD 3.6. then they got modified to more closely resemble the timeradd(3) macros for OpenBSD 6.6. a whole origin story, honestly 😭💖

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💫 AUTHORS 💫

Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@freebsd.org> — thank you king 🫶

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lowkey remember: these are tiny helpers, so don't try to make them do something they don't do. the manpage says exactly what it says, and that's the whole tea 🍵

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and that's a wrap bestie!! this page is from Debian, dated June 3, 2019, and you just read the whole thing — no skimming, i'm so proud of you 😭🎀💖