[SOLVED] Node.js - How to generate timestamp unix epoch format?

Node.js - How to generate timestamp unix epoch format?

I am trying to send data to graphite carbon-cache process on port 2003 using

Ubuntu terminal:

echo "test.average 4 `date +%s`" | nc -q0 127.0.0.1 2003

Node.js:

var socket = net.createConnection(2003, "127.0.0.1", function() {
    socket.write("test.average "+assigned_tot+"\n");
    socket.end();
});

It works fine when i send data using the terminal window command on my ubuntu. However, i am not sure how to send timestamp unix epoch format from nodejs ?

Grpahite understands metric in this format metric_path value timestamp

Thanks!

Solution

The native JavaScript Date system works in milliseconds as opposed to seconds, but otherwise, it is the same "epoch time" as in UNIX.

You can round down the fractions of a second and get the UNIX epoch by doing:

Math.floor(+new Date() / 1000)

Update: As Guillermo points out, an alternate syntax may be more readable:

Math.floor(new Date().getTime() / 1000)

The + in the first example is a JavaScript quirk that forces evaluation as a number, which has the same effect of converting to milliseconds. The second version does this explicitly.