An explanation of some terminology and conventions is in order.

.. _epoch:

.. index:: single: epoch

* The :dfn:`epoch` is the point where the time starts. On January 1st of that

year, at 0 hours, the "time since the epoch" is zero. For Unix, the epoch is

1970. To find out what the epoch is, look at ``gmtime(0)``.

* The :dfn:`epoch` is the point where the time starts, and is platform

dependent. For Unix, the epoch is January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (UTC).

To find out what the epoch is on a given platform, look at

``time.gmtime(0)``.

.. _leap seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second

.. index:: seconds since the epoch

* The term :dfn:`seconds since the epoch` refers to the total number

of elapsed seconds since the epoch, typically excluding

`leap seconds`_. Leap seconds are excluded from this total on all

POSIX-compliant platforms.

.. index:: single: Year 2038

(2)

The range really is ``0`` to ``61``; value ``60`` is valid in

timestamps representing leap seconds and value ``61`` is supported

timestamps representing `leap seconds`_ and value ``61`` is supported

for historical reasons.

(3)

.. function:: time()

Return the time in seconds since the epoch as a floating point number.

Return the time in seconds since the epoch_ as a floating point

number. The specific date of the epoch and the handling of

`leap seconds`_ is platform dependent.

On Windows and most Unix systems, the epoch is January 1, 1970,

00:00:00 (UTC) and leap seconds are not counted towards the time

in seconds since the epoch. This is commonly referred to as

`Unix time <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time>`_.

To find out what the epoch is on a given platform, look at

``gmtime(0)``.

Note that even though the time is always returned as a floating point

number, not all systems provide time with a better precision than 1 second.

While this function normally returns non-decreasing values, it can return a

lower value than a previous call if the system clock has been set back between

the two calls.

lower value than a previous call if the system clock has been set back

between the two calls.

The number returned by :func:`.time` may be converted into a more common

time format (i.e. year, month, day, hour, etc...) in UTC by passing it to

:func:`gmtime` function or in local time by passing it to the

:func:`localtime` function. In both cases a

:class:`struct_time` object is returned, from which the components

of the calendar date may be accessed as attributes.

.. data:: timezone