Struct std::time::SystemTime

pub struct SystemTime(/* private fields */);

A measurement of the system clock, useful for talking to external entities like the file system or other processes.

Distinct from the Instant type, this time measurement is not monotonic. This means that you can save a file to the file system, then save another file to the file system, and the second file has a SystemTime measurement earlier than the first. In other words, an operation that happens after another operation in real time may have an earlier SystemTime!

Consequently, comparing two SystemTime instances to learn about the duration between them returns a Result instead of an infallible Duration to indicate that this sort of time drift may happen and needs to be handled.

Although a SystemTime cannot be directly inspected, the UNIX_EPOCH constant is provided in this module as an anchor in time to learn information about a SystemTime. By calculating the duration from this fixed point in time, a SystemTime can be converted to a human-readable time, or perhaps some other string representation.

The size of a SystemTime struct may vary depending on the target operating system.

A SystemTime does not count leap seconds. SystemTime::now()’s behaviour around a leap second is the same as the operating system’s wall clock. The precise behaviour near a leap second (e.g. whether the clock appears to run slow or fast, or stop, or jump) depends on platform and configuration, so should not be relied on.

Example:

use std::time::{Duration, SystemTime};
use std::thread::sleep;

fn main() {
   let now = SystemTime::now();

   // we sleep for 2 seconds
   sleep(Duration::new(2, 0));
   match now.elapsed() {
       Ok(elapsed) => {
           // it prints '2'
           println!("{}", elapsed.as_secs());
       }
       Err(e) => {
           // an error occurred!
           println!("Error: {e:?}");
       }
   }
}

Platform-specific behavior

The precision of SystemTime can depend on the underlying OS-specific time format. For example, on Windows the time is represented in 100 nanosecond intervals whereas Linux can represent nanosecond intervals.

The following system calls are currently being used by now() to find out the current time:

Platform	System call
SGX	insecure_time usercall. More information on timekeeping in SGX
UNIX	clock_gettime (Realtime Clock)
Darwin	clock_gettime (Realtime Clock)
VXWorks	clock_gettime (Realtime Clock)
SOLID	SOLID_RTC_ReadTime
WASI	__wasi_clock_time_get (Realtime Clock)
Windows	GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime / GetSystemTimeAsFileTime

Disclaimer: These system calls might change over time.

Note: mathematical operations like add may panic if the underlying structure cannot represent the new point in time.

Implementations

impl SystemTime

pub const UNIX_EPOCH: SystemTime = UNIX_EPOCH

An anchor in time which can be used to create new SystemTime instances or learn about where in time a SystemTime lies.

This constant is defined to be “1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC” on all systems with respect to the system clock. Using duration_since on an existing SystemTime instance can tell how far away from this point in time a measurement lies, and using UNIX_EPOCH + duration can be used to create a SystemTime instance to represent another fixed point in time.

duration_since(UNIX_EPOCH).unwrap().as_secs() returns the number of non-leap seconds since the start of 1970 UTC. This is a POSIX time_t (as a u64), and is the same time representation as used in many Internet protocols.

Examples

use std::time::SystemTime;

match SystemTime::now().duration_since(SystemTime::UNIX_EPOCH) {
    Ok(n) => println!("1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC was {} seconds ago!", n.as_secs()),
    Err(_) => panic!("SystemTime before UNIX EPOCH!"),
}

pub fn now() -> SystemTime

Returns the system time corresponding to “now”.

Examples

use std::time::SystemTime;

let sys_time = SystemTime::now();

pub fn duration_since( &self, earlier: SystemTime, ) -> Result<Duration, SystemTimeError>

Returns the amount of time elapsed from an earlier point in time.

This function may fail because measurements taken earlier are not guaranteed to always be before later measurements (due to anomalies such as the system clock being adjusted either forwards or backwards). Instant can be used to measure elapsed time without this risk of failure.

If successful, Ok(Duration) is returned where the duration represents the amount of time elapsed from the specified measurement to this one.

Returns an Err if earlier is later than self, and the error contains how far from self the time is.

Examples

use std::time::SystemTime;

let sys_time = SystemTime::now();
let new_sys_time = SystemTime::now();
let difference = new_sys_time.duration_since(sys_time)
    .expect("Clock may have gone backwards");
println!("{difference:?}");

pub fn elapsed(&self) -> Result<Duration, SystemTimeError>

Returns the difference from this system time to the current clock time.

This function may fail as the underlying system clock is susceptible to drift and updates (e.g., the system clock could go backwards), so this function might not always succeed. If successful, Ok(Duration) is returned where the duration represents the amount of time elapsed from this time measurement to the current time.

To measure elapsed time reliably, use Instant instead.

Returns an Err if self is later than the current system time, and the error contains how far from the current system time self is.

Examples

use std::thread::sleep;
use std::time::{Duration, SystemTime};

let sys_time = SystemTime::now();
let one_sec = Duration::from_secs(1);
sleep(one_sec);
assert!(sys_time.elapsed().unwrap() >= one_sec);

pub fn checked_add(&self, duration: Duration) -> Option<SystemTime>

Returns Some(t) where t is the time self + duration if t can be represented as SystemTime (which means it’s inside the bounds of the underlying data structure), None otherwise.

pub fn checked_sub(&self, duration: Duration) -> Option<SystemTime>

Returns Some(t) where t is the time self - duration if t can be represented as SystemTime (which means it’s inside the bounds of the underlying data structure), None otherwise.

Trait Implementations

impl Add<Duration> for SystemTime

fn add(self, dur: Duration) -> SystemTime

Panics

This function may panic if the resulting point in time cannot be represented by the underlying data structure. See SystemTime::checked_add for a version without panic.

type Output = SystemTime

The resulting type after applying the + operator.

impl AddAssign<Duration> for SystemTime

fn add_assign(&mut self, other: Duration)

Performs the += operation.

impl Clone for SystemTime

fn clone(&self) -> SystemTime

Returns a copy of the value.

fn clone_from(&mut self, source: &Self)

Performs copy-assignment from source.

impl Debug for SystemTime

fn fmt(&self, f: &mut Formatter<'_>) -> Result

Formats the value using the given formatter.

impl Hash for SystemTime

fn hash<__H: Hasher>(&self, state: &mut __H)

Feeds this value into the given Hasher.

fn hash_slice<H>(data: &[Self], state: &mut H)

where H: Hasher, Self: Sized,

Feeds a slice of this type into the given Hasher.

impl Ord for SystemTime

fn cmp(&self, other: &SystemTime) -> Ordering

This method returns an Ordering between self and other.

fn max(self, other: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the maximum of two values.

fn min(self, other: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized,

Compares and returns the minimum of two values.

fn clamp(self, min: Self, max: Self) -> Self

where Self: Sized + PartialOrd,

Restrict a value to a certain interval.

impl PartialEq for SystemTime

fn eq(&self, other: &SystemTime) -> bool

Tests for self and other values to be equal, and is used by ==.

fn ne(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason.

impl PartialOrd for SystemTime

fn partial_cmp(&self, other: &SystemTime) -> Option<Ordering>

This method returns an ordering between self and other values if one exists.

fn lt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests less than (for self and other) and is used by the < operator.

fn le(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests less than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the <= operator.

fn gt(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests greater than (for self and other) and is used by the > operator.

fn ge(&self, other: &Rhs) -> bool

Tests greater than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the >= operator.

impl Sub<Duration> for SystemTime

type Output = SystemTime

The resulting type after applying the - operator.

fn sub(self, dur: Duration) -> SystemTime

Performs the - operation.

impl SubAssign<Duration> for SystemTime

fn sub_assign(&mut self, other: Duration)

Performs the -= operation.

impl Copy for SystemTime

impl Eq for SystemTime

impl StructuralPartialEq for SystemTime