Convert a millisecond timestamp to a readable date string

Summary

The long2date macro converts a long integer representing milliseconds since the Unix epoch (January 1, 1970, 00:00:00 UTC) into a human-readable date string.

Syntax

${long2date;<milliseconds>}

Parameters

• milliseconds - A long integer representing milliseconds since epoch

Behavior

• Parses the input as a long integer
• Converts to a formatted date string
• Returns “not a valid long” if parsing fails
• Uses a standard date format for output

Examples

Convert current time:

${long2date;${currenttime}}
# Returns: "Wed Nov 20 10:30:45 UTC 2024" (example)

Convert stored timestamp:

Build-Date: ${long2date;1700000000000}
# Returns human-readable date

Format file modification time:

Modified: ${long2date;${fmodified;${@}}}

Display build timestamp:

${long2date;${tstamp}}

Use Cases

• Converting timestamps to readable dates
• Displaying build times in manifests
• Formatting file modification times
• Debugging timestamp values
• Creating human-readable logs
• Documentation generation with dates

Notes

• Input must be milliseconds (not seconds)
• Returns “not a valid long” for invalid input
• Date format is standard Java Date.toString() format
• The output format is not customizable in this macro
• For custom date formatting, use ${tstamp} macro
• See also: ${currenttime} for getting current time in milliseconds
• See also: ${tstamp} for formatted timestamps
• See also: ${now} for seconds since epoch

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See test cases in MacroTestsForDocsExamples.java