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clock(n)                     Tcl Built-In Commands                    clock(n)

______________________________________________________________________________


NAME

       clock - Obtain and manipulate dates and times


SYNOPSIS

       package require Tcl 8.5

       clock add timeVal ?count unit...? ?-option value?

       clock clicks ?-option?

       clock format timeVal ?-option value...?

       clock microseconds

       clock milliseconds

       clock scan inputString ?-option value...?

       clock seconds

______________________________________________________________________________


DESCRIPTION

       The clock command performs several operations that obtain and
       manipulate values that represent times.  The command supports several
       subcommands that determine what action is carried out by the command.

       clock add timeVal ?count unit...? ?-option value?
              Adds a (possibly negative) offset to a time that is expressed as
              an integer number of seconds.  See CLOCK ARITHMETIC for a full
              description.

       clock clicks ?-option?
              If no -option argument is supplied, returns a high-resolution
              time value as a system-dependent integer value.  The unit of the
              value is system-dependent but should be the highest resolution
              clock available on the system such as a CPU cycle counter.  See
              HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.

              If the -option argument is -milliseconds, then the command is
              synonymous with clock milliseconds (see below).  This usage is
              obsolete, and clock milliseconds is to be considered the
              preferred way of obtaining a count of milliseconds.

              If the -option argument is -microseconds, then the command is
              synonymous with clock microseconds (see below).  This usage is
              obsolete, and clock microseconds is to be considered the
              preferred way of obtaining a count of microseconds.

       clock format timeVal ?-option value...?
              Formats a time that is expressed as an integer number of seconds
              into a format intended for consumption by users or external
              programs.  See FORMATTING TIMES for a full description.

       clock microseconds
              Returns the current time as an integer number of microseconds.
              See HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.

       clock milliseconds
              Returns the current time as an integer number of milliseconds.
              See HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS for a full description.

       clock scan inputString ?-option value...?
              Scans a time that is expressed as a character string and
              produces an integer number of seconds.  See SCANNING TIMES for a
              full description.

       clock seconds
              Returns the current time as an integer number of seconds.

   PARAMETERS
       count  An integer representing a count of some unit of time.  See CLOCK
              ARITHMETIC for the details.

       timeVal
              An integer value passed to the clock command that represents an
              absolute time as a number of seconds from the epoch time of 1
              January 1970, 00:00 UTC.  Note that the count of seconds does
              not include any leap seconds; seconds are counted as if each UTC
              day has exactly 86400 seconds.  Tcl responds to leap seconds by
              speeding or slowing its clock by a tiny fraction for some
              minutes until it is back in sync with UTC; its data model does
              not represent minutes that have 59 or 61 seconds.

       unit   One of the words, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,
              or years, or any unique prefix of such a word. Used in
              conjunction with count to identify an interval of time, for
              example, 3 seconds or 1 year.

   OPTIONS
       -base time
              Specifies that any relative times present in a clock scan
              command are to be given relative to time.  time must be
              expressed as a count of nominal seconds from the epoch time of 1
              January 1970, 00:00 UTC.

       -format format
              Specifies the desired output format for clock format or the
              expected input format for clock scan.  The format string
              consists of any number of characters other than the per-cent
              sign ("%") interspersed with any number of format groups, which
              are two-character sequences beginning with the per-cent sign.
              The permissible format groups, and their interpretation, are
              described under FORMAT GROUPS.

              On clock format, the default format is

                     %a %b %d %H:%M:%S %Z %Y

              On clock scan, the lack of a -format option indicates that a
              "free format scan" is requested; see FREE FORM SCAN for a
              description of what happens.

       -gmt boolean
              If boolean is true, specifies that a time specified to clock
              add, clock format or clock scan should be processed in UTC.  If
              boolean is false, the processing defaults to the local time
              zone.  This usage is obsolete; the correct current usage is to
              specify the UTC time zone with "-timezone :UTC" or any of the
              equivalent ways to specify it.

       -locale localeName
              Specifies that locale-dependent scanning and formatting (and
              date arithmetic for dates preceding the adoption of the
              Gregorian calendar) is to be done in the locale identified by
              localeName.  The locale name may be any of the locales
              acceptable to the msgcat package, or it may be the special name
              system, which represents the current locale of the process, or
              the null string, which represents Tcl's default locale.

              The effect of locale on scanning and formatting is discussed in
              the descriptions of the individual format groups under FORMAT
              GROUPS.  The effect of locale on clock arithmetic is discussed
              under CLOCK ARITHMETIC.

       -timezone zoneName
              Specifies that clock arithmetic, formatting, and scanning are to
              be done according to the rules for the time zone specified by
              zoneName.  The permissible values, and their interpretation, are
              discussed under TIME ZONES.  On subcommands that expect a
              -timezone argument, the default is to use the current time zone.
              The current time zone is determined, in order of preference, by:

              [1]    the environment variable TCL_TZ.

              [2]    the environment variable TZ.

              [3]    on Windows systems, the time zone settings from the
                     Control Panel.

       If none of these is present, the C localtime and mktime functions are
       used to attempt to convert times between local and Greenwich.  On
       32-bit systems, this approach is likely to have bugs, particularly for
       times that lie outside the window (approximately the years 1902 to
       2037) that can be represented in a 32-bit integer.


CLOCK ARITHMETIC

       The clock add command performs clock arithmetic on a value (expressed
       as nominal seconds from the epoch time of 1 January 1970, 00:00 UTC)
       given as its first argument.  The remaining arguments (other than the
       possible -timezone, -locale and -gmt options) are integers and keywords
       in alternation, where the keywords are chosen from seconds, minutes,
       hours, days, weeks, months, or years, or any unique prefix of such a
       word.

       Addition of seconds, minutes and hours is fairly straightforward; the
       given time increment (times sixty for minutes, or 3600 for hours) is
       simply added to the timeVal given to the clock add command.  The result
       is interpreted as a nominal number of seconds from the Epoch.

       Surprising results may be obtained when crossing a point at which a
       leap second is inserted or removed; the clock add command simply
       ignores leap seconds and therefore assumes that times come in sequence,
       23:59:58, 23:59:59, 00:00:00.  This assumption is handled by the fact
       that Tcl's model of time reacts to leap seconds by speeding or slowing
       the clock by a miniscule amount until Tcl's time is back in step with
       the world.

       The fact that adding and subtracting hours is defined in terms of
       absolute time means that it will add fixed amounts of time in time
       zones that observe summer time (Daylight Saving Time).  For example,
       the following code sets the value of x to 04:00:00 because the clock
       has changed in the interval in question.

              set s [clock scan {2004-10-30 05:00:00} \
                         -format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
                         -timezone :America/New_York]
              set a [clock add $s 24 hours -timezone :America/New_York]
              set x [clock format $a \
                         -format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]

       Adding and subtracting days and weeks is accomplished by converting the
       given time to a calendar day and time of day in the appropriate time
       zone and locale.  The requisite number of days (weeks are converted to
       days by multiplying by seven) is added to the calendar day, and the
       date and time are then converted back to a count of seconds from the
       epoch time.

       Adding and subtracting a given number of days across the point that the
       time changes at the start or end of summer time (Daylight Saving Time)
       results in the same local time on the day in question.  For instance,
       the following code sets the value of x to 05:00:00.

              set s [clock scan {2004-10-30 05:00:00} \
                         -format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
                         -timezone :America/New_York]
              set a [clock add $s 1 day -timezone :America/New_York]
              set x [clock format $a \
                         -format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]

       In cases of ambiguity, where the same local time happens twice on the
       same day, the earlier time is used.  In cases where the conversion
       yields an impossible time (for instance, 02:30 during the Spring
       Daylight Saving Time change using US rules), the time is converted as
       if the clock had not changed.  Thus, the following code will set the
       value of x to 03:30:00.

              set s [clock scan {2004-04-03 02:30:00} \
                         -format {%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S} \
                         -timezone :America/New_York]
              set a [clock add $s 1 day -timezone :America/New_York]
              set x [clock format $a \
                         -format {%H:%M:%S} -timezone :America/New_York]

       Adding a given number of days or weeks works correctly across the
       conversion between the Julian and Gregorian calendars; the omitted days
       are skipped.  The following code sets z to 1752-09-14.

              set x [clock scan 1752-09-02 -format %Y-%m-%d -locale en_US]
              set y [clock add $x 1 day -locale en_US]
              set z [clock format $y -format %Y-%m-%d -locale en_US]

       In the bizarre case that adding the given number of days yields a date
       that does not exist because it falls within the dropped days of the
       Julian-to-Gregorian conversion, the date is converted as if it was on
       the Julian calendar.

       Adding a number of months, or a number of years, is similar; it
       converts the given time to a calendar date and time of day.  It then
       adds the requisite number of months or years, and reconverts the
       resulting date and time of day to an absolute time.

       If the resulting date is impossible because the month has too few days
       (for example, when adding 1 month to 31 January), the last day of the
       month is substituted.  Thus, adding 1 month to 31 January will result
       in 28 February in a common year or 29 February in a leap year.

       The rules for handling anomalies relating to summer time and to the
       Gregorian calendar are the same when adding/subtracting months and
       years as they are when adding/subtracting days and weeks.

       If multiple count unit pairs are present on the command, they are
       evaluated consecutively, from left to right.


HIGH RESOLUTION TIMERS

       Most of the subcommands supported by the clock command deal with times
       represented as a count of seconds from the epoch time, and this is the
       representation that clock seconds returns.  There are three exceptions,
       which are all intended for use where higher-resolution times are
       required.  clock milliseconds returns the count of milliseconds from
       the epoch time, and clock microseconds returns the count of
       microseconds from the epoch time. In addition, there is a clock clicks
       command that returns a platform-dependent high-resolution timer.
       Unlike clock seconds and clock milliseconds, the value of clock clicks
       is not guaranteed to be tied to any fixed epoch; it is simply intended
       to be the most precise interval timer available, and is intended only
       for relative timing studies such as benchmarks.


FORMATTING TIMES

       The clock format command produces times for display to a user or
       writing to an external medium.  The command accepts times that are
       expressed in seconds from the epoch time of 1 January 1970, 00:00 UTC,
       as returned by clock seconds, clock scan, clock add, file atime or file
       mtime.

       If a -format option is present, the following argument is a string that
       specifies how the date and time are to be formatted.  The string
       consists of any number of characters other than the per-cent sign ("%")
       interspersed with any number of format groups, which are two-character
       sequences beginning with the per-cent sign.  The permissible format
       groups, and their interpretation, are described under FORMAT GROUPS.

       If a -timezone option is present, the following argument is a string
       that specifies the time zone in which the date and time are to be
       formatted.  As an alternative to "-timezone :UTC", the obsolete usage
       "-gmt true" may be used.  See TIME ZONES for the permissible variants
       for the time zone.

       If a -locale option is present, the following argument is a string that
       specifies the locale in which the time is to be formatted, in the same
       format that is used for the msgcat package.  Note that the default, if
       -locale is not specified, is the root locale {} rather than the current
       locale.  The current locale may be obtained by using -locale current.
       In addition, some platforms support a system locale that reflects the
       user's current choices.  For instance, on Windows, the format that the
       user has selected from dates and times in the Control Panel can be
       obtained by using the system locale.  On platforms that do not define a
       user selection of date and time formats separate from LC_TIME, -locale
       system is synonymous with -locale current.


SCANNING TIMES

       The clock scan command accepts times that are formatted as strings and
       converts them to counts of seconds from the epoch time of 1 January
       1970, 00:00 UTC.  It normally takes a -format option that is followed
       by a string describing the expected format of the input.  (See FREE
       FORM SCAN for the effect of clock scan without such an argument.)  The
       string consists of any number of characters other than the per-cent
       sign ("%"), interspersed with any number of format groups, which are
       two-character sequences beginning with the per-cent sign.  The
       permissible format groups, and their interpretation, are described
       under FORMAT GROUPS.

       If a -timezone option is present, the following argument is a string
       that specifies the time zone in which the date and time are to be
       interpreted.  As an alternative to -timezone :UTC, the obsolete usage
       -gmt true may be used.  See TIME ZONES for the permissible variants for
       the time zone.

       If a -locale option is present, the following argument is a string that
       specifies the locale in which the time is to be interpreted, in the
       same format that is used for the msgcat package.  Note that the
       default, if -locale is not specified, is the root locale {} rather than
       the current locale.  The current locale may be obtained by using
       -locale current.  In addition, some platforms support a system locale
       that reflects the user's current choices.  For instance, on Windows,
       the format that the user has selected from dates and times in the
       Control Panel can be obtained by using the system locale.  On platforms
       that do not define a user selection of date and time formats separate
       from LC_TIME, -locale system is synonymous with -locale current.

       If a -base option is present, the following argument is a time
       (expressed in seconds from the epoch time) that is used as a base time
       for interpreting relative times.  If no -base option is present, the
       base time is the current time.

       Scanning of times in fixed format works by determining three things:
       the date, the time of day, and the time zone.  These three are then
       combined into a point in time, which is returned as the number of
       seconds from the epoch.

       Before scanning begins, the format string is preprocessed to replace
       %c, %Ec, %x, %Ex, %X. %Ex, %r, %R, %T, %D, %EY and %+ format groups
       with counterparts that are appropriate to the current locale and
       contain none of the above groups.  For instance, %D will (in the en_US
       locale) be replaced with %m/%d/%Y.

       The date is determined according to the fields that are present in the
       preprocessed format string.  In order of preference:

       [1]    If the string contains a %s format group, representing seconds
              from the epoch, that group is used to determine the date.

       [2]    If the string contains a %J format group, representing the
              Julian Day Number, that group is used to determine the date.

       [3]    If the string contains a complete set of format groups
              specifying century, year, month, and day of month; century,
              year, and day of year; or ISO8601 fiscal year, week of year, and
              day of week; those groups are combined and used to determine the
              date.  If more than one complete set is present, the one at the
              rightmost position in the string is used.

       [4]    If the string lacks a century but contains a set of format
              groups specifying year of century, month and day of month; year
              of century and day of year; or two-digit ISO8601 fiscal year,
              week of year, and day of week; those groups are combined and
              used to determine the date.  If more than one complete set is
              present, the one at the rightmost position in the string is
              used.  The year is presumed to lie in the range 1938 to 2037
              inclusive.

       [5]    If the string entirely lacks any specification for the year (or
              contains the year only on the locale's alternative calendar) and
              contains a set of format groups specifying month and day of
              month, day of year, or week of year and day of week, those
              groups are combined and used to determine the date.  If more
              than one complete set is present, the one at the rightmost
              position in the string is used.  The year is determined by
              interpreting the base time in the given time zone.

       [6]    If the string contains none of the above sets, but has a day of
              the month or day of the week, the day of the month or day of the
              week are used to determine the date by interpreting the base
              time in the given time zone and returning the given day of the
              current week or month.  (The week runs from Monday to Sunday,
              ISO8601-fashion.)  If both day of month and day of week are
              present, the day of the month takes priority.

       [7]    If none of the above rules results in a usable date, the date of
              the base time in the given time zone is used.

       The time is also determined according to the fields that are present in
       the preprocessed format string.  In order of preference:

       [1]    If the string contains a %s format group, representing seconds
              from the epoch, that group determines the time of day.

       [2]    If the string contains either an hour on the 24-hour clock or an
              hour on the 12-hour clock plus an AM/PM indicator, that hour
              determines the hour of the day.  If the string further contains
              a group specifying the minute of the hour, that group combines
              with the hour.  If the string further contains a group
              specifying the second of the minute, that group combines with
              the hour and minute.

       [3]    If the string contains neither a %s format group nor a group
              specifying the hour of the day, then midnight (00:00, the start
              of the given date) is used.  The time zone is determined by
              either the -timezone or -gmt options, or by using the current
              time zone.

       If a format string lacks a %z or %Z format group, it is possible for
       the time to be ambiguous because it appears twice in the same day, once
       without and once with Daylight Saving Time.  If this situation occurs,
       the first occurrence of the time is chosen.  (For this reason, it is
       wise to have the input string contain the time zone when converting
       local times.  This caveat does not apply to UTC times.)

       If the interpretation of the groups yields an impossible time because a
       field is out of range, enough of that field's unit will be added to or
       subtracted from the time to bring it in range. Thus, if attempting to
       scan or format day 0 of the month, one day will be subtracted from day
       1 of the month, yielding the last day of the previous month.

       If the interpretation of the groups yields an impossible time because a
       Daylight Saving Time change skips over that time, or an ambiguous time
       because a Daylight Saving Time change skips back so that the clock
       observes the given time twice, and no time zone specifier (%z or %Z) is
       present in the format, the time is interpreted as if the clock had not
       changed.


FORMAT GROUPS

       The following format groups are recognized by the clock scan and clock
       format commands.

       %a     On output, produces an abbreviation (e.g., Mon) for the day of
              the week in the given locale.  On input, matches the name of the
              day of the week in the given locale (in either abbreviated or
              full form, or any unique prefix of either form).

       %A     On output, produces the full name (e.g., Monday) of the day of
              the week in the given locale.  On input, matches the name of the
              day of the week in the given locale (in either abbreviated or
              full form, or any unique prefix of either form).

       %b     On output, produces an abbreviation (e.g., Jan) for the name of
              the month in the given locale.  On input, matches the name of
              the month in the given locale (in either abbreviated or full
              form, or any unique prefix of either form).

       %B     On output, produces the full name (e.g., January) of the month
              in the given locale.  On input, matches the name of the month in
              the given locale (in either abbreviated or full form, or any
              unique prefix of either form).

       %c     On output, produces a localized representation of date and time
              of day; the localized representation is expected to use the
              Gregorian calendar.  On input, matches whatever %c produces.

       %C     On output, produces the number of the century in Indo-Arabic
              numerals.  On input, matches one or two digits, possibly with
              leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of the
              century.

       %d     On output, produces the number of the day of the month, as two
              decimal digits.  On input, matches one or two digits, possibly
              with leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of
              the day of the month.

       %D     This format group is synonymous with %m/%d/%Y.  It should be
              used only in exchanging data within the en_US locale, since
              other locales typically do not use this order for the fields of
              the date.

       %e     On output, produces the number of the day of the month, as one
              or two decimal digits (with a leading blank for one-digit
              dates).  On input, matches one or two digits, possibly with
              leading whitespace, that are expected to be the number of the
              day of the month.

       %Ec    On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
              date and time of day in the locale's alternative calendar.  On
              input, matches whatever %Ec produces.  The locale's alternative
              calendar need not be the Gregorian calendar.

       %EC    On output, produces a locale-dependent name of an era in the
              locale's alternative calendar.  On input, matches the name of
              the era or any unique prefix.

       %EE    On output, produces the string B.C.E. or C.E., or a string of
              the same meaning in the locale, to indicate whether %Y refers to
              years before or after Year 1 of the Common Era.  On input,
              accepts the string B.C.E., B.C., C.E., A.D., or the abbreviation
              appropriate to the current locale, and uses it to fix whether %Y
              refers to years before or after Year 1 of the Common Era.

       %Ex    On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
              date in the locale's alternative calendar.  On input, matches
              whatever %Ex produces.  The locale's alternative calendar need
              not be the Gregorian calendar.

       %EX    On output, produces a locale-dependent representation of the
              time of day in the locale's alternative numerals.  On input,
              matches whatever %EX produces.

       %Ey    On output, produces a locale-dependent number of the year of the
              era in the locale's alternative calendar and numerals.  On
              input, matches such a number.

       %EY    On output, produces a representation of the year in the locale's
              alternative calendar and numerals.  On input, matches what %EY
              produces.  Often synonymous with %EC%Ey.

       %g     On output, produces a two-digit year number suitable for use
              with the week-based ISO8601 calendar; that is, the year number
              corresponds to the week number produced by %V.  On input,
              accepts such a two-digit year number, possibly with leading
              whitespace.

       %G     On output, produces a four-digit year number suitable for use
              with the week-based ISO8601 calendar; that is, the year number
              corresponds to the week number produced by %V.  On input,
              accepts such a four-digit year number, possibly with leading
              whitespace.

       %h     This format group is synonymous with %b.

       %H     On output, produces a two-digit number giving the hour of the
              day (00-23) on a 24-hour clock.  On input, accepts such a
              number.

       %I     On output, produces a two-digit number giving the hour of the
              day (12-11) on a 12-hour clock.  On input, accepts such a
              number.

       %j     On output, produces a three-digit number giving the day of the
              year (001-366).  On input, accepts such a number.

       %J     On output, produces a string of digits giving the Julian Day
              Number.  On input, accepts a string of digits and interprets it
              as a Julian Day Number.  The Julian Day Number is a count of the
              number of calendar days that have elapsed since 1 January, 4713
              BCE of the proleptic Julian calendar.  The epoch time of 1
              January 1970 corresponds to Julian Day Number 2440588.

       %k     On output, produces a one- or two-digit number giving the hour
              of the day (0-23) on a 24-hour clock.  On input, accepts such a
              number.

       %l     On output, produces a one- or two-digit number giving the hour
              of the day (12-11) on a 12-hour clock.  On input, accepts such a
              number.

       %m     On output, produces the number of the month (01-12) with exactly
              two digits.  On input, accepts two digits and interprets them as
              the number of the month.

       %M     On output, produces the number of the minute of the hour (00-59)
              with exactly two digits.  On input, accepts two digits and
              interprets them as the number of the minute of the hour.

       %N     On output, produces the number of the month (1-12) with one or
              two digits, and a leading blank for one-digit dates.  On input,
              accepts one or two digits, possibly with leading whitespace, and
              interprets them as the number of the month.

       %Od, %Oe, %OH, %OI, %Ok, %Ol, %Om, %OM, %OS, %Ou, %Ow, %Oy
              All of these format groups are synonymous with their
              counterparts without the "O", except that the string is produced
              and parsed in the locale-dependent alternative numerals.

       %p     On output, produces an indicator for the part of the day, AM or
              PM, appropriate to the given locale.  If the script of the given
              locale supports multiple letterforms, lowercase is preferred.
              On input, matches the representation AM or PM in the given
              locale, in either case.

       %P     On output, produces an indicator for the part of the day, am or
              pm, appropriate to the given locale.  If the script of the given
              locale supports multiple letterforms, uppercase is preferred.
              On input, matches the representation AM or PM in the given
              locale, in either case.

       %Q     This format group is reserved for internal use within the Tcl
              library.

       %r     On output, produces a locale-dependent time of day
              representation on a 12-hour clock. On input, accepts whatever %r
              produces.

       %R     On output, the time in 24-hour notation (%H:%M). For a version
              including the seconds, see %T below. On input, accepts whatever
              %R produces.

       %s     On output, simply formats the timeVal argument as a decimal
              integer and inserts it into the output string.  On input,
              accepts a decimal integer and uses is as the time value without
              any further processing. Since %s uniquely determines a point in
              time, it overrides all other input formats.

       %S     On output, produces a two-digit number of the second of the
              minute (00-59). On input, accepts two digits and uses them as
              the second of the minute.

       %t     On output, produces a TAB character. On input, matches a TAB
              character.

       %T     Synonymous with %H:%M:%S.

       %u     On output, produces the number of the day of the week
              (1->Monday, 7->Sunday). On input, accepts a single digit and
              interprets it as the day of the week. Sunday may be either 0 or
              7.

       %U     On output, produces the ordinal number of the week of the year
              (00-53). The first Sunday of the year is the first day of week
              01. On input accepts two digits which are otherwise ignored.
              This format group is never used in determining an input date.
              This interpretation of the week of the year was once common in
              US banking but is now largely obsolete.  See %V for the ISO8601
              week number.

       %V     On output, produces the number of the ISO8601 week as a two
              digit number (01-53). Week 01 is the week containing January 4;
              or the first week of the year containing at least 4 days; or the
              week containing the first Thursday of the year (the three
              statements are equivalent). Each week begins on a Monday. On
              input, accepts the ISO8601 week number.

       %w     On output, produces the ordinal number of the day of the week
              (Sunday==0; Saturday==6).  On input, accepts a single digit and
              interprets it as the day of the week; Sunday may be represented
              as either 0 or 7.  Note that %w is not the ISO8601 weekday
              number, which is produced and accepted by %u.

       %W     On output, produces a week number (00-53) within the year; week
              01 begins on the first Monday of the year. On input, accepts two
              digits, which are otherwise ignored. This format group is never
              used in determining an input date.  It is not the ISO8601 week
              number; that week is produced and accepted by %V.

       %x     On output, produces the date in a locale-dependent
              representation. On input, accepts whatever %x produces and is
              used to determine calendar date.

       %X     On output, produces the time of day in a locale-dependent
              representation. On input, accepts whatever %X produces and is
              used to determine time of day.

       %y     On output, produces the two-digit year of the century. On input,
              accepts two digits, and is used to determine calendar date. The
              date is presumed to lie between 1938 and 2037 inclusive. Note
              that %y does not yield a year appropriate for use with the
              ISO8601 week number %V; programs should use %g for that purpose.

       %Y     On output, produces the four-digit calendar year. On input,
              accepts four digits and may be used to determine calendar date.
              Note that %Y does not yield a year appropriate for use with the
              ISO8601 week number %V; programs should use %G for that purpose.

       %z     On output, produces the current time zone, expressed in hours
              and minutes east (+hhmm) or west (-hhmm) of Greenwich. On input,
              accepts a time zone specifier (see TIME ZONES below) that will
              be used to determine the time zone.

       %Z     On output, produces the current time zone's name, possibly
              translated to the given locale. On input, accepts a time zone
              specifier (see TIME ZONES below) that will be used to determine
              the time zone. This option should, in general, be used on input
              only when parsing RFC822 dates. Other uses are fraught with
              ambiguity; for instance, the string BST may represent British
              Summer Time or Brazilian Standard Time. It is recommended that
              date/time strings for use by computers use numeric time zones
              instead.

       %%     On output, produces a literal "%" character. On input, matches a
              literal "%" character.

       %+     Synonymous with "%a %b %e %H:%M:%S %Z %Y".


TIME ZONES

       When the clock command is processing a local time, it has several
       possible sources for the time zone to use.  In order of preference,
       they are:

       [1]    A time zone specified inside a string being parsed and matched
              by a %z or %Z format group.

       [2]    A time zone specified with the -timezone option to the clock
              command (or, equivalently, by -gmt 1).

       [3]    A time zone specified in an environment variable TCL_TZ.

       [4]    A time zone specified in an environment variable TZ.

       [5]    The local time zone from the Control Panel on Windows systems.

       [6]    The C library's idea of the local time zone, as defined by the
              mktime and localtime functions.

       In case [1] only, the string is tested to see if it is one of the
       strings:

               gmt     ut      utc     bst     wet     wat     at
               nft     nst     ndt     ast     adt     est     edt
               cst     cdt     mst     mdt     pst     pdt     yst
               ydt     hst     hdt     cat     ahst    nt      idlw
               cet     cest    met     mewt    mest    swt     sst
               eet     eest    bt      it      zp4     zp5     ist
               zp6     wast    wadt    jt      cct     jst     cast
               cadt    east    eadt    gst     nzt     nzst    nzdt
               idle

       If it is a string in the above list, it designates a known time zone,
       and is interpreted as such.

       For time zones in case [1] that do not match any of the above strings,
       and always for cases [2]-[6], the following rules apply.

       If the time zone begins with a colon, it is one of a standardized list
       of names like :America/New_York that give the rules for various
       locales.  A complete list of the location names is too lengthy to be
       listed here.  On most Tcl installations, the definitions of the
       locations are to be found in named files in the directory
       "/no_backup/tools/lib/tcl8.5/clock/tzdata".  On some Unix systems,
       these files are omitted, and the definitions are instead obtained from
       system files in "/usr/share/zoneinfo", "/usr/share/lib/zoneinfo" or
       "/usr/local/etc/zoneinfo".  As a special case, the name :localtime
       refers to the local time zone as defined by the C library.

       A time zone string consisting of a plus or minus sign followed by four
       or six decimal digits is interpreted as an offset in hours, minutes,
       and seconds (if six digits are present) from UTC.  The plus sign
       denotes a sign east of Greenwich; the minus sign one west of Greenwich.

       A time zone string conforming to the Posix specification of the TZ
       environment variable will be recognized.  The specification may be
       found at
       https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/basedefs/xbd_chap08.html.

       If the Posix time zone string contains a DST (Daylight Savings Time)
       part, but doesn't contain a rule stating when DST starts or ends, then
       default rules are used. For Timezones with an offset between 0 and +12,
       the current European/Russian rules are used, otherwise the current US
       rules are used. In Europe (offset +0 to +2) the switch to summertime is
       done each last Sunday in March at 1:00 GMT, and the switch back is each
       last Sunday in October at 2:00 GMT. In Russia (offset +3 to +12), the
       switch dates are the same, only the switch to summertime is at 2:00
       local time, and the switch back is at 3:00 local time in all time
       zones. The US switch to summertime takes place each second Sunday in
       March at 2:00 local time, and the switch back is each first Sunday in
       November at 3:00 local time. These default rules mean that in all
       European, Russian and US (or compatible) time zones, DST calculations
       will be correct for dates in 2007 and later, unless in the future the
       rules change again.

       Any other time zone string is processed by prefixing a colon and
       attempting to use it as a location name, as above.


LOCALIZATION

       Developers wishing to localize the date and time formatting and parsing
       are referred to https://tip.tcl-lang.org/173 for a specification.


FREE FORM SCAN

       If the clock scan command is invoked without a -format option, then it
       requests a free-form scan.   This form of scan is deprecated.  The
       reason for the deprecation is that there are too many ambiguities.
       (Does the string "2000" represent a year, a time of day, or a
       quantity?)  No set of rules for interpreting free-form dates and times
       has been found to give unsurprising results in all cases.

       If free-form scan is used, only the -base and -gmt options are
       accepted.  The -timezone and -locale options will result in an error if
       -format is not supplied.

       For the benefit of users who need to understand legacy code that uses
       free-form scan, the documentation for how free-form scan interprets a
       string is included here:

       If only a time is specified, the current date is assumed.  If the
       inputString does not contain a time zone mnemonic, the local time zone
       is assumed, unless the -gmt argument is true, in which case the clock
       value is calculated assuming that the specified time is relative to
       Greenwich Mean Time.  -gmt, if specified, affects only the computed
       time value; it does not impact the interpretation of -base.

       If the -base flag is specified, the next argument should contain an
       integer clock value.  Only the date in this value is used, not the
       time.  This is useful for determining the time on a specific day or
       doing other date-relative conversions.

       The inputString argument consists of zero or more specifications of the
       following form:

       time   A time of day, which is of the form: hh?:mm?:ss?? ?meridian?
              ?zone? or hhmm ?meridian? ?zone? If no meridian is specified, hh
              is interpreted on a 24-hour clock.

       date   A specific month and day with optional year.  The acceptable
              formats are "mm/dd?/yy?", "monthname dd?, yy?", "day, dd
              monthname ?yy?", "dd monthname yy", "?CC?yymmdd", and "dd-
              monthname-?CC?yy".  The default year is the current year.  If
              the year is less than 100, we treat the years 00-68 as 2000-2068
              and the years 69-99 as 1969-1999.  Not all platforms can
              represent the years 38-70, so an error may result if these years
              are used.

       ISO 8601 point-in-time
              An ISO 8601 point-in-time specification, such as
              "CCyymmddThhmmss", where T is the literal "T", "CCyymmdd
              hhmmss", "CCyymmddThh:mm:ss", or "CCyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss".  Note
              that only these four formats are accepted.  The command does not
              accept the full range of point-in-time specifications specified
              in ISO8601.  Other formats can be recognized by giving an
              explicit -format option to the clock scan command.

       relative time
              A specification relative to the current time.  The format is
              number unit. Acceptable units are year, fortnight, month, week,
              day, hour, minute (or min), and second (or sec).  The unit can
              be specified as a singular or plural, as in 3 weeks.  These
              modifiers may also be specified: tomorrow, yesterday, today,
              now, last, this, next, ago.

       The actual date is calculated according to the following steps.

       First, any absolute date and/or time is processed and converted.  Using
       that time as the base, day-of-week specifications are added.  Next,
       relative specifications are used.  If a date or day is specified, and
       no absolute or relative time is given, midnight is used.  Finally, a
       correction is applied so that the correct hour of the day is produced
       after allowing for daylight savings time differences and the correct
       date is given when going from the end of a long month to a short month.


SEE ALSO

       msgcat(n)


KEYWORDS

       clock, date, time


COPYRIGHT

       Copyright (C) 2004 Kevin B. Kenny <kennykb@acm.org>. All rights
       reserved.

Tcl                                   8.5                             clock(n)

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