---
name: "tai64n"
section: "8"
platform: "linux"
package: "daemontools"
version: "1:0.76-14"
release: "Debian 13 (Trixie)"
platforms: ["linux"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/tai64n"
---

# tai64n(8)

puts a precise timestamp on each line.

## NAME

tai64n - puts a precise timestamp on each line.

## SYNOPSIS

**tai64n**

## DESCRIPTION

**tai64n** reads lines from stdin. For each line, it writes

- 1

  an @,

- 2\.

  a precise timestamp,

- 3\.

  a space, and

- 4\.

  a copy of the input line

  to stdout. The timestamp indicates the moment that **tai64n** read the first character of the line.

  **tai64n** does not allocate any memory after it starts.

## TIMESTAMPS

Timestamps used by **tai64n** are 12-byte TAI64N labels in external TAI64N format, printed as 24 lowercase hexadecimal characters. You can use [**tai64nlocal**(8)](/tai64nlocal/8.md) to convert the timestamps to a human-readable format.

For example, the timestamp 4000000037c219bf2ef02e94 refers to the nanosecond beginning exactly 935467455.787492500 seconds after the beginning of 1970 TAI; 37c219bf hexadecimal is 935467455, and 2ef02e94 hexadecimal is 787492500.

The current implementation of **tai64n** relies on the UNIX gettimeofday library routine to return the current time as the number of TAI seconds since 1970-01-01 00:00:10 TAI. Beware that most gettimeofday implementations are not Y2038-compliant. Furthermore, most clocks are not set accurately.

## EXIT CODES

**tai64n** exits 0 when it sees end of input. It exits 111 without an error message if it has trouble reading stdin or writing stdout.

## SEE ALSO

[supervise(8)](/supervise/8.md), [svc(8)](/svc/8.md), [svok(8)](/svok/8.md), [svstat(8)](/svstat/8.md), [svscanboot(8)](/svscanboot/8.md), [svscan(8)](/svscan/8.md), [readproctitle(8)](/readproctitle/8.md), [fghack(8)](/fghack/8.md),   [pgrphack(8)](/pgrphack/8.md), [multilog(8)](/multilog/8.md), [tai64nlocal(8)](/tai64nlocal/8.md), [setuidgid(8)](/setuidgid/8.md), [envuidgid(8)](/envuidgid/8.md), [envdir(8)](/envdir/8.md), [softlimit(8)](/softlimit/8.md), [setlock(8)](/setlock/8.md)

http://cr.yp.to/daemontools.html