Editing Unix time (section)

== Alternatives ==
Unix time is not the only standard for time that counts away from an epoch. On [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]], the <code>FILETIME</code> type stores time as a count of 100-nanosecond intervals that have elapsed since 0:00 [[GMT]] on 1&nbsp;January 1601.<ref>{{cite web |title=FILETIME (minwinbase.h) - Win32 apps |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/minwinbase/ns-minwinbase-filetime |website=Microsoft Learn |date=2 April 2021 |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=9 March 2023 |archive-date=10 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230310065235/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/api/minwinbase/ns-minwinbase-filetime |url-status=live }}</ref> Windows epoch time is used to store timestamps for files<ref>{{cite web |title=File Times - Win32 apps |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/sysinfo/file-times |website=Microsoft Learn |date=7 January 2021 |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=9 March 2023 |archive-date=8 March 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230308222206/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/sysinfo/file-times |url-status=live }}</ref> and in protocols such as the [[Active Directory]] Time Service<ref>{{cite web |title=How to convert date/time attributes in Active Directory to standard time format |url=https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/identity/convert-datetime-attributes-to-standard-format#summary |website=Microsoft Learn |publisher=Microsoft |access-date=20 October 2022 |archive-date=20 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221020181637/https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/identity/convert-datetime-attributes-to-standard-format#summary |url-status=live }}</ref> and [[Server Message Block]].

The [[Network Time Protocol]] used to coordinate time between computers uses an epoch of 1&nbsp;January 1900, counted in an unsigned 32-bit integer for seconds and another unsigned 32-bit integer for fractional seconds, which rolls over every 2{{sup|32}} seconds (about once every 136 years).<ref name="StevensFenner2004">{{cite book |author1=W. Richard Stevens |author2=Bill Fenner |author3=Andrew M. Rudoff |title=UNIX Network Programming |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ptSC4LpwGA0C&pg=PA582 |year=2004 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Professional |isbn=978-0-13-141155-5 |pages=582– |access-date=16 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330170620/https://books.google.com/books?id=ptSC4LpwGA0C&pg=PA582 |archive-date=30 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Many applications and programming languages provide methods for storing time with an explicit timezone.<ref>{{cite web |title=datetime — Basic date and time types |url=https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#available-types |website=Python Standard Library Reference |publisher=Python Software Foundation |access-date=20 October 2022 |quote=Attributes: year, month, day, hour, minute, second, microsecond, and tzinfo. |archive-date=19 October 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221019115837/https://docs.python.org/3/library/datetime.html#available-types |url-status=live }}</ref> There are also a number of time format standards which exist to be readable by both humans and computers, such as [[ISO 8601]].