'\"macro stdmacro
.\"
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.\" 
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.\"
.TH PMPARSEINTERVAL 3 "PCP" "Performance Co-Pilot"
.SH NAME
\f3pmParseInterval\f1 \- convert interval string to \fBtimeval\fR structure
.SH "C SYNOPSIS"
.ft 3
#include <pcp/pmapi.h>
.sp
.ad l
.hy 0
.in +8n
.ti -8n
int pmParseInterval(const char *\fIstring\fP, struct timeval *\fIrslt\fP, char\ **\fIerrmsg\fP);
.sp
.in
.hy
.ad
cc ... \-lpcp
.ft 1
.de CW
.ie t \f(CW\\$1\f1\\$2
.el \fI\\$1\f1\\$2
..
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B pmParseInterval
parses the argument
.I string
specifying an interval of time and fills in the
.B tv_sec
and
.B tv_usec
components of the
.I rslt
structure to represent that interval.
.PP
The input
.I string
is most commonly the argument following a
.BR \-t
command line option to a PCP application, and
the syntax is fully described in
.BR PCPIntro (1).
.PP
.B pmParseInterval
returns 0 and
.I errmsg
is undefined if the parsing is successful.
.PP
If the given
.I string
does not conform to the required syntax
.B pmParseInterval
returns \-1 and a dynamically allocated
error message string in
.IR errmsg .
The error message
is terminated with a newline and
includes the text of the input
.I string
along with an indicator of the position at which the error was detected,
e.g.
.br
.in +1i
.CW "\&4minutes 30mumble"
.br
.CW "\&           ^ -- unexpected value"
.in -1i
.PP
In the case of an error, the caller is responsible for calling
.BR free (3C)
to release the space allocated for
.IR errmsg .
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR PMAPI (3)
and
.BR pmParseTimeWindow (3).