From owner-freebsd-hackers  Mon Jul 28 20:48:49 1997
Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-hackers>
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id UAA03743
          for hackers-outgoing; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:48:49 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from awfulhak.demon.co.uk (awfulhak.demon.co.uk [158.152.17.1])
          by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id UAA03735
          for <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>; Mon, 28 Jul 1997 20:48:41 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from awfulhak.org (dev.lan.awfulhak.org [10.0.1.5])
	by awfulhak.demon.co.uk (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id EAA19123;
	Tue, 29 Jul 1997 04:33:19 +0100 (BST)
Received: from dev.lan.awfulhak.org (localhost [127.0.0.1])
	by awfulhak.org (8.8.6/8.8.6) with ESMTP id EAA20583;
	Tue, 29 Jul 1997 04:33:18 +0100 (BST)
Message-Id: <199707290333.EAA20583@awfulhak.org>
X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0zeta 7/24/97
To: Michael Smith <msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au>
cc: brian@awfulhak.org (Brian Somers), freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject: Re: date(1) 
In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 29 Jul 1997 12:41:47 +0930."
             <199707290311.MAA09780@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> 
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Date: Tue, 29 Jul 1997 04:33:18 +0100
From: Brian Somers <brian@awfulhak.org>
Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

> Brian Somers stands accused of saying:
> > Yep.  I think I'll fix the usage message too - shouldn't it be:
> > 
> >   [[yy[mm[dd[hh]]]]mm[.ss]]
> 
> That'd be consistent with the manpage.
> 
> > >  - The ability to input and output the timestamp in decimal or hex
> > >    localtime() format, ie. 0xXXXXXXXX or DDDDDDDDDD
> > 
> > Do you mean to output the actual "number of seconds since the epoch", 
> > as in the opposite of the -r option ?
> 
> -r emits seconds since the epoch in decimal.  At the very least, -r
> with a timevalue argument should set the time in seconds, preferably
> using strtoul so that it can handle decimal, hex and octal.
> 
> Actually, -r is redundant, as +%s will do the same thing.

Not true.  -r takes a ``seconds'' arg, and uses that instead of 
calling time().  It's a non-setting input value.

I can get -r to use strtol(), but do we want to do things the other
way too ?  Do we want to be able to output hex too (ie, a change to
strftime(3) - pity %x is gone...) ?

> On further thought, an alternative approach would be to use the new
> strptime() function and take a format string for scanning the time,
> much as it takes now for formatting the output.

This would allow us to change (say) the current month without touching
the time..... how new is "strptime" ?  It ain't on my machine (supped
1.5 hours ago).

> -- 
> ]] Mike Smith, Software Engineer        msmith@gsoft.com.au             [[
> ]] Genesis Software                     genesis@gsoft.com.au            [[
> ]] High-speed data acquisition and      (GSM mobile)     0411-222-496   [[
> ]] realtime instrument control.         (ph)          +61-8-8267-3493   [[
> ]] Unix hardware collector.             "Where are your PEZ?" The Tick  [[

-- 
Brian <brian@awfulhak.org>, <brian@freebsd.org>
      <http://www.awfulhak.org>
Don't _EVER_ lose your sense of humour....