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SystemClock — system clock

Purpose

Production time source: returns real OS time in a fixed timezone. The hot now() path is as cheap as possible; timestamp()/microtime() create no objects at all.

What for and how to use

Inject via ClockInterface into every service that needs “now”: logging, TTLs, schedules. Factories: SystemClock::utc() (cached), SystemClock::system(), SystemClock::fromTimezone($tz).

Example

$clock = SystemClock::utc();
$moment = $clock->now();          // DateTimeImmutable in UTC
$unix = $clock->timestamp();      // int, no date object
$fine = $clock->microtime();      // float with microseconds

Anti-patterns

Do not call statically deep inside business logic — pass the interface, otherwise tests cannot substitute time.

Lifecycle

stateDiagram-v2
    [*] --> Created: utc()/system()/fromTimezone()
    Created --> Reading: now()/timestamp()/microtime()
    Reading --> Reading: repeat
    Created --> Frozen: freeze()
    Frozen --> [*]

Feature comparison with competitors

Aspect	🏆 CloudCastle	symfony	carbon	lcobucci	beste	ergebnis
Fixed explicit timezone	✅	✅	✅	✅	❌	✅
Cached UTC instance	✅	❌	❌	❌	✅	❌
Timestamp without a date object	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌	❌
Real sleep()/sleepUntil()	✅	✅	❌	❌	❌	❌
Total	🏆 4	2	1	1	1	1

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