Home Contents | # os.time | OS | Lua Commands

## SYNOPSIS

os.time([table])

## DESCRIPTION

Returns the current time when called without arguments, or a time representing the date and time specified by the given table. This table must have fields year, month, and day, and may have fields hour, min, sec, and isdst (for a description of these fields, see the os.date function).

The returned value is the number of seconds since the POSIX epoch: 1. Jan 1970, midnight, UTC.

## RETURN VALUE

Returns an integer.

## NOTES

This function is part of the original Lua specification. We recommend using the Core4 specific date/time functions instead.

## Bugs

This function suffers from the Year 2038 problem.

## EXAMPLE

>
print(os.time())
12003788

## SEE ALSO

os.date