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bpo-29026: Minor improvements for time.time doc
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Diff for: Doc/library/time.rst

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@@ -17,18 +17,23 @@ semantics of these functions varies among platforms.
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An explanation of some terminology and conventions is in order.
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.. _epoch:
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.. index:: single: epoch
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* The :dfn:`epoch` is the point where the time starts, and is platform
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dependent. For Unix, the epoch is January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 (UTC).
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To find out what the epoch is on a given platform, look at ``gmtime(0)``.
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To find out what the epoch is on a given platform, look at
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``time.gmtime(0)``.
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.. _leap seconds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second
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.. index:: seconds since the epoch
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* The term :dfn:`seconds since the epoch` refers to the total number
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of elapsed seconds since the epoch, typically excluding
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`leap seconds <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second>`_.
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Leap seconds are excluded from this total on all POSIX-compliant platforms.
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`leap seconds`_. Leap seconds are excluded from this total on all
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POSIX-compliant platforms.
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.. index:: single: Year 2038
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@@ -579,27 +584,28 @@ The module defines the following functions and data items:
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.. function:: time()
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Return the time in seconds since the epoch as a floating point
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Return the time in seconds since the epoch_ as a floating point
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number. The specific date of the epoch and the handling of
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`leap seconds <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leap_second>`_
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is platform dependent.
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`leap seconds`_ is platform dependent.
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On Windows and most Unix systems, the epoch is January 1, 1970,
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00:00:00 (UTC) and leap seconds are not counted towards the time
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in seconds since the epoch. This is commonly referred to as
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`Unix time <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_time>`_.
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To find out what the epoch is on a given platform, look at
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``time.gmtime(0)``.
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Note that even though the time is always returned as a floating point
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number, not all systems provide time with a better precision than 1 second.
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While this function normally returns non-decreasing values, it can return a
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lower value than a previous call if the system clock has been set back
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between the two calls.
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The number returned by :func:`time` may be converted into a more common
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The number returned by :func:`time.time` may be converted into a more common
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time format (i.e. year, month, day, hour, etc...) in UTC by passing it to
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:func:`gmtime` function or in local time by passing it to the
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:func:`localtime` function. In both cases a :class:`struct_time` object
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is returned, from which the components of the calendar date may be accessed
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as attributes.
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:func:`time.gmtime` function or in local time by passing it to the
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:func:`time.localtime` function. In both cases a
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:class:`time.struct_time` object is returned, from which the components
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of the calendar date may be accessed as attributes.
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.. data:: timezone
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