Seconds Since Epoch Example of calculating seconds elapsed since epoch (1970-Jan-1) using local_date_time. int main() { using namespace boost::gregorian; using namespace boost::local_time; using namespace boost::posix_time; tz_database tz_db; try { tz_db.load_from_file("../data/date_time_zonespec.csv"); }catch(data_not_accessible dna) { std::cerr << "Error with time zone data file: " << dna.what() << std::endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); }catch(bad_field_count bfc) { std::cerr << "Error with time zone data file: " << bfc.what() << std::endl; exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } time_zone_ptr nyc_tz = tz_db.time_zone_from_region("America/New_York"); date in_date(2004,10,04); time_duration td(12,14,32); // construct with local time value // create not-a-date-time if invalid (eg: in dst transition) local_date_time nyc_time(in_date, td, nyc_tz, local_date_time::NOT_DATE_TIME_ON_ERROR); std::cout << nyc_time << std::endl; ptime time_t_epoch(date(1970,1,1)); std::cout << time_t_epoch << std::endl; // first convert nyc_time to utc via the utc_time() // call and subtract the ptime. time_duration diff = nyc_time.utc_time() - time_t_epoch; //Expected 1096906472 std::cout << "Seconds diff: " << diff.total_seconds() << std::endl; } ]]>