NAME

       curl_getdate - Convert a date string to number of seconds

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       time_t curl_getdate(char *datestring, time_t *now);

DESCRIPTION

       curl_getdate(3)  returns the number of seconds since the Epoch, January 1st 1970 00:00:00 in the UTC time
       zone, for the date and time that the datestring parameter specifies. The now parameter is not used,  pass
       a NULL there.

PARSING DATES AND TIMES

       A  "date"  is  a  string  containing  several  items  separated  by whitespace. The order of the items is
       immaterial. A date string may contain many flavors of items:

       calendar date items
               Can be specified several ways. Month  names  can  only  be  three-letter  english  abbreviations,
               numbers  can  be  zero-prefixed  and  the  year  may  use  2 or 4 digits.  Examples: 06 Nov 1994,
               06-Nov-94 and Nov-94 6.

       time of the day items
               This string specifies the time on a given day. You must specify it with 6 digits with two colons:
               HH:MM:SS. To not include the time in a date string,  will  make  the  function  assume  00:00:00.
               Example: 18:19:21.

       time zone items
               Specifies  international time zone. There are a few acronyms supported, but in general you should
               instead use the specific relative time compared to UTC. Supported formats  include:  -1200,  MST,
               +0100.

       day of the week items
               Specifies  a  day  of  the  week.  Days  of  the week may be spelled out in full (using english):
               `Sunday', `Monday', etc or they may be abbreviated to their first three letters. This is  usually
               not info that adds anything.

       pure numbers
               If  a decimal number of the form YYYYMMDD appears, then YYYY is read as the year, MM as the month
               number and DD as the day of the month, for the specified calendar date.

EXAMPLE

        time_t t;
        t = curl_getdate("Sun, 06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 GMT", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sunday, 06-Nov-94 08:49:37 GMT", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sun Nov  6 08:49:37 1994", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 GMT", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06-Nov-94 08:49:37 GMT", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Nov  6 08:49:37 1994", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06 Nov 1994 08:49:37", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06-Nov-94 08:49:37", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("1994 Nov 6 08:49:37", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("GMT 08:49:37 06-Nov-94 Sunday", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("94 6 Nov 08:49:37", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("1994 Nov 6", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06-Nov-94", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sun Nov 6 94", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("1994.Nov.6", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sun/Nov/6/94/GMT", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sun, 06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 CET", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("06 Nov 1994 08:49:37 EST", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sun, 12 Sep 2004 15:05:58 -0700", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("Sat, 11 Sep 2004 21:32:11 +0200", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("20040912 15:05:58 -0700", NULL);
        t = curl_getdate("20040911 +0200", NULL);

STANDARDS

       This parser handles date formats specified in RFC 822 (including the update in RFC 1123) using time  zone
       name  or time zone delta and RFC 850 (obsoleted by RFC 1036) and ANSI C's asctime() format. These formats
       are the only ones RFC 7231 says HTTP applications may use.

AVAILABILITY

       Always

RETURN VALUE

       This function returns -1 when it fails to parse the date string.  Otherwise  it  returns  the  number  of
       seconds as described.

       On  systems with a signed 32 bit time_t: if the year is larger than 2037 or less than 1903, this function
       will return -1.

       On systems with an unsigned 32 bit time_t: if the year is larger  than  2106  or  less  than  1970,  this
       function will return -1.

       On  systems  with  64  bit  time_t:  if  the  year  is less than 1583, this function will return -1. (The
       Gregorian calendar was first introduced 1582 so no "real" dates in this way of doing dates existed before
       then.)

SEE ALSO

       curl_easy_escape(3), curl_easy_unescape(3), CURLOPT_TIMECONDITION(3), CURLOPT_TIMEVALUE(3)

libcurl 7.81.0                                  November 26, 2021                                curl_getdate(3)