=over =item time X<time> X<epoch> Returns the number of non-leap seconds since whatever time the system considers to be the epoch, suitable for feeding to C<gmtime> and C<localtime>. On most systems the epoch is 00:00:00 UTC, January 1, 1970; a prominent exception being Mac OS Classic which uses 00:00:00, January 1, 1904 in the current local time zone for its epoch. For measuring time in better granularity than one second, use the L<Time::HiRes> module from Perl 5.8 onwards (or from CPAN before then), or, if you have gettimeofday(2), you may be able to use the C<syscall> interface of Perl. See L<perlfaq8> for details. For date and time processing look at the many related modules on CPAN. For a comprehensive date and time representation look at the L<DateTime> module. =back