BetterDate

A simple terminal-based clock written in C that displays:

• Epoch time (Unix timestamp) on the first line
• Date + time with milliseconds on the second line
• Both lines update in place without printing new lines
• Uses ANSI escape codes for cursor control

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Example Output

Epoch: 1732812345
Date: 28/11/2025 Time: 18:41:13.123

The same two lines refresh smoothly.

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Features

• Updates continuously without flickering
• Overwrites the same two lines using ANSI cursor movement
• Shows milliseconds using clock_gettime()
• Works on any Linux terminal
• No external dependencies
• Great intro project for C time functions and terminal control

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Source Code

#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main() {
    time_t rawtime;
    struct tm *pTime;

    printf("\n\n");

    while (1) {
        time(&rawtime);
        pTime = localtime(&rawtime);

        struct timespec ts;
        clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts);
        long ms = ts.tv_nsec / 1000000;

        printf("\033[2A");

        printf("Epoch: %ld\n", rawtime);

        
        printf("Date: %02d/%02d/%d  Time: %02d:%02d:%02d.%03ld\n",
               pTime->tm_mday,
               pTime->tm_mon + 1,
               pTime->tm_year + 1900,
               pTime->tm_hour,
               pTime->tm_min,
               pTime->tm_sec,
               ms);

        fflush(stdout);
        
    }

    return 0;
}

Build & Run

Compile:

gcc betterdateC.c -o betterdateC

Run:

./betterdateC