.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Joerg Wunsch
.\"
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. 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.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPERS ``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 THE DEVELOPERS 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.
.\"
.\" $FreeBSD$
.\" "
.Dd May 8, 1997
.Dt STRPTIME 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm strptime
.Nd parse date and time string
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <time.h>
.Ft char *
.Fn strptime "const char *buf" "const char *format" "struct tm *timeptr"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn strptime
function parses the string in the buffer
.Fa buf
according to the string pointed to by
.Fa format ,
and fills in the elements of the structure pointed to by
.Fa timeptr .
The resulting values will be relative to the local time zone.
Thus, it can be considered the reverse operation of
.Xr strftime 3 .
.Pp
The
.Fa format
string consists of zero or more conversion specifications and
ordinary characters.
All ordinary characters are matched exactly with the buffer, where
white space in the format string will match any amount of white space
in the buffer.
All conversion specifications are identical to those described in
.Xr strftime 3 .
.Pp
Two-digit year values, including formats
.Fa %y
and 
.Fa %D ,
are now interpreted as beginning at 1969 per POSIX requirements.
Years 69-00 are interpreted in the 20th century (1969-2000), years
01-68 in the 21st century (2001-2068).
.Sh RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion,
.Fn strptime
returns the pointer to the first character in
.Fa buf
that has not been required to satisfy the specified conversions in
.Fa format .
It returns
.Dv NULL
if one of the conversions failed.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr date 1 ,
.Xr scanf 3 ,
.Xr strftime 3
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Fn strptime
function has been contributed by Powerdog Industries.
.Pp
This man page was written by
.ie t J\(:org Wunsch.
.el Joerg Wunsch.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn strptime
function appeared in
.Fx 3.0 .
.Pp
.Sh BUGS
Both the
.Fa %e
and
.Fa %l
format specifiers may incorrectly scan one too many digits
if the intended values comprise only a single digit
and that digit is followed immediately by another digit.
Both specifiers accept zero-padded values,
even though they are both defined as taking unpadded values.
.Pp
The
.Fa %p
format specifier has no effect unless it is parsed
.Em after
hour-related specifiers.
Specifying
.Fa %l
without
.Fa %p
will produce undefined results.
Note that 12AM
.Pq ante meridiem
is taken as midnight
and 12PM
.Pq post meridiem
is taken as noon.
.Pp
The
.Fa %U
and
.Fa %W
format specifiers accept any value within the range 00 to 53
without validating against other values supplied (like month
or day of the year, for example).
.Pp
The
.Fa %Z
format specifier only accepts time zone abbreviations of the local time zone,
or the value "GMT".
This limitation is because of ambiguity due to of the over loading of time
zone abbreviations.  One such example is
.Fa EST
which is both Eastern Standard Time and Eastern Australia Summer Time.