💡 A timestamp is used to assign a unique time to an event. FleetMon data always contains a UNIX timestamp. |
The Unix time is a time definition developed for the Unix operating system. All FleetMon timestamps are based on the Unix time that counts the elapsed seconds since Thursday, January 1, 1970, 00:00 UTC. The start date is also known as "The Epoch". The changeover from one second to the next is synchronous to UTC. Leap seconds are ignored, and a leap second has the same timestamp as the second before it.
Conversion into a human-readable form, including the application of time zones, daylight saving time, and leap years, is then handled by additional functions of the standard library. The date representation as seconds since the Unix epoch is often used because it is much easier for computer programs to process than the "human" date format. Furthermore, definitions of time zones change, and the Gregorian calendar is not used worldwide. With these values, periods can easily be calculated as differences in seconds. Summer or wintertime, time zones, and leap seconds no longer play a role. For this reason, this value is also often used as a timestamp.