NAME

       curl_getdate - Convert a date string to number of seconds

SYNOPSIS

       #include <curl/curl.h>

       time_t curl_getdate(const char *datestring, const 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.

       This  function works with valid dates and does not always detect and reject wrong dates, such as February
       30.

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.  If  there  is  no  time given in a provided date string, 00:00:00 is assumed. 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

       int main(void)
       {
         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
       returns -1.

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

       On  systems  with  64 bit time_t: if the year is less than 1583, this function returns -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 8.5.0                                   December 04, 2023                                curl_getdate(3)