Demonstrate basic boost date/time usage of clock, duration and time comparison. Compare cost of local_time() and universal_time(). The universal_time() function is about 2x faster.

boost_date_time.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include "boost/date_time/posix_time/posix_time_types.hpp"

using namespace boost::posix_time; 

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    const int dsec = 5;

    {
        ptime t0 = microsec_clock::local_time();
        ptime tt = t0 + seconds(dsec);
        long n = 0;
        while (true) {
            ++n;
            if (microsec_clock::local_time() > tt) break;
        }
        std::cout << "local_time(): n= " << n << "   rate= " << double(n)/double(dsec) << std::endl;
    }

    {
        ptime t0 = microsec_clock::universal_time();
        ptime tt = t0 + seconds(dsec);
        long n = 0;
        while (true) {
            ++n;
            if (microsec_clock::universal_time() > tt) break;
        }
        std::cout << "universal_time(): n= " << n << "   rate= " << double(n)/double(dsec) << std::endl;
    }

    return 0;
}

output.txt

$ ./boost_date_time 
local_time(): n= 7566784   rate= 1.51336e+06
universal_time(): n= 14736859   rate= 2.94737e+06