gentimes
Description
The gentimes command is useful in conjunction with the map command.
Generates timestamp results starting with the exact time specified as start time. Each result describes an adjacent, non-overlapping time range as indicated by the increment value. This terminates when enough results are generated to pass the endtime value.
The gentimes command generates events up to the end time, but not including the end time.
Syntax
| gentimes start=<timestamp> [end=<timestamp>] [increment=<increment>]
Required arguments
start
Syntax: start=<timestamp>
Description: Specify as start time.
<timestamp>
Syntax: MM/DD/YYYY[:HH:MM:SS] | <int>
Description: Indicate the timeframe, using either a timestamp or an integer value. For example: 10/1/2020 for October 1, 2020, 4/1/2021:12:34:56 for April 1, 2021 at 12:34:56, or -5 for five days ago.
Optional arguments
end
Syntax: end=<timestamp>
Description: Specify an end time.
Default: midnight, prior to the current time in local time
increment
Syntax: increment=<int>(s | m | h | d)
Description: Specify a time period to increment from the start time to the end time. Supported increments are seconds, minutes, hours, and days.
Default: 1d
Usage
The gentimes command is an event-generating command. See Command types.
Generating commands use a leading pipe character and should be the first command in a search.
The gentimes command returns four fields.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| starttime | The starting time range in UNIX time. |
| starthuman | The human readable time range in the format DDD MMM DD HH:MM:SS YYYY. For example Sun Apr 4 00:00:00 2021. |
| endtime | The ending time range in UNIX time. |
| endhuman | The human readable time range in the format DDD MMM DD HH:MM:SS YYYY. For example Fri Apr 16 23:59:59 2021. |
To specify future dates, you must include the end argument.
Examples
1. Generate daily time ranges by specifying dates
Generates daily time ranges from April 4 to April 7 in 2021. This search generates events up to the end time, but not including the end time. This search generates three intervals covering one day periods aligning with the calendar days April 4, 5, and 6, during 2021. The gentimes command generates events up to the end time, but not including the end time.
| gentimes start=4/4/21 end=4/7/21The results look like this:
| endhuman | endtime | starthuman | starttime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun Apr 4 23:59:59 2021 | 1617605999 | Sun Apr 4 00:00:00 2021 | 1617519600 |
| Mon Apr 5 23:59:59 2021 | 1617692399 | Mon Apr 5 00:00:00 2021 | 1617606000 |
| Tue Apr 6 23:59:59 2021 | 1617778799 | Tue Apr 6 00:00:00 2021 | 1617692400 |
2. Generate daily time ranges by specifying relative times
Generate daily time ranges from 30 days ago until 27 days ago.
| gentimes start=-30 end=-273. Generate hourly time ranges
Generate hourly time ranges from December 1 to December 5 in 2021.
| gentimes start=12/1/21 end=12/5/21 increment=1h4. Generate time ranges by only specifying a start date
Generate daily time ranges from April 25 to today.
| gentimes start=4/25/225. Generate weekly time ranges
Although the week increment is not supported, you can generate a weekly increment by specifying increment=7d.
This examples generates weekly time ranges from December 1, 2021 to April 30, 2022.
| gentimes start=12/1/21 end=4/30/22 increment=7d