Function: current-time

current-time is a function defined in timefns.c.

Signature

(current-time)

Documentation

Return the current time, as the number of seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:00.

The time is returned as a list of integers (HIGH LOW USEC PSEC). HIGH has the most significant bits of the seconds, while LOW has the least significant 16 bits. USEC and PSEC are the microsecond and picosecond counts.

In a future Emacs version, the format of the returned timestamp is planned to change. Use time-convert if you need a particular timestamp form; for example, (time-convert nil 'integer) returns the current time in seconds.

Probably introduced at or before Emacs version 20.3.

Source Code

// Defined in /usr/src/emacs/src/timefns.c
{
  return make_lisp_time (current_timespec ());
}