freebsd man page for inittodr

INITTODR(9)						   BSD Kernel Developer's Manual					       INITTODR(9)

NAME
     inittodr -- initialize system time

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/types.h>
     #include <sys/systm.h>

     void
     inittodr(time_t base);

DESCRIPTION
     The inittodr() function determines the time and sets the system clock.  It tries to pick the correct time using a set of heuristics that
     examine the system's battery backed clock and the time obtained from the root file system, as given in base.  How the base value is obtained
     will vary depending on the root file system type.	The heuristics used include:

     o	 If the battery-backed clock has a valid time, it is used.

     o	 If the battery-backed clock does not have a valid time, the time provided in base will be used.

     Once a system time has been determined, it is stored in the time variable.

DIAGNOSTICS
     The inittodr() function prints diagnostic messages if it has trouble figuring out the system time.  Conditions that can cause diagnostic mes-
     sages to be printed include:

     o	 The battery-backed clock's time appears nonsensical.

SEE ALSO
     resettodr(9), time(9)

BUGS
     On many systems, inittodr() has to convert from a time expressed in terms of year, month, day, hours, minutes, and seconds to time, expressed
     in seconds.  Many of the implementations could share code, but do not.

     Each system's heuristics for picking the correct time are slightly different.

     The FreeBSD implementation should do a better job of validating the time provided in base when the battery-backed clock is unusable.  Cur-
     rently it unconditionally sets the system clock to this value.

BSD
								  March 22, 1997							       BSD