get-universal-time

(get-universal-time)

Returns the current time as the number of seconds since the Common Lisp epoch of 1900-01-01 GMT (Unix time plus 2208988800). Every backend returns an integer; the WASM backend reads the clock from the host (the real host clock in Preview 1, wasi:clocks@0.3.0 in --component mode). A --no-wasi module imports no clock and reports the time its host handed over — see the clock and randomness guide.

Each call yields the wall-clock time at the moment of the call, so the result is non-deterministic; subtracting two readings gives an elapsed number of seconds.