DuoClock

DuoClock is a PSR-20-compatible clock abstraction. It provides dual time access (DateTimeImmutable, int, float) and mockable sleep functions (sleep, usleep, and more) for testing time-sensitive code.

Features

• Implements Psr\Clock\ClockInterface.
• Provides:
  • now(): DateTimeImmutable
  • time(): int
  • microtime(): float
• Offers mockable sleep(), usleep(), nanosleep(), and time_nanosleep() for test environments.
• Provides getStartTick() and getEndTick() for measuring elapsed time.
• Mockable time methods: now(), time(), and microtime().
• Includes a deterministic TimeSpy for testing.
• Is minimal, with a lightweight design (depends only on psr/clock).
• Has all classes non-final to allow easy mocking and testing.

Installation

composer require sanmai/duoclock

Interfaces

namespace DuoClock;

interface DuoClockInterface
{
    public function time(): int;
    public function microtime(): float;
}

interface SleeperInterface
{
    public function sleep(int $seconds): int;
    public function usleep(int $microseconds): void;
}

interface NanoSleeperInterface
{
    public function time_nanosleep(int $seconds, int $nanoseconds): array|bool;
    public function nanosleep(int $nanoseconds): array|bool;
}

interface TickerInterface
{
    public function getStartTick(): float;
    public function getEndTick(): float;
}

Usage

Real Clock:

$clock = new DuoClock\DuoClock();

$clock->now();        // DateTimeImmutable
$clock->time();       // int
$clock->microtime();  // float

$clock->sleep(1);     // real sleep
$clock->usleep(1000); // real micro-sleep

$clock->nanosleep(1_500_000_000); // sleep 1.5 seconds
$clock->time_nanosleep(1, 500_000_000); // same as above

Measuring Elapsed Time

$clock = new DuoClock\DuoClock();

$timer = $clock->getStartTick();
// ...work...
$timer += $clock->getEndTick();
// $timer now contains elapsed seconds as float

TimeSpy, as a testing-time dependency:

$clock = new DuoClock\TimeSpy(1752321600); // Corresponds to '2025-07-12T12:00:00Z'

$clock->time();       // 1752321600

$clock->sleep(10);    // advances virtual clock by 10 seconds
$clock->usleep(5000); // advances virtual clock by 0.005 seconds

$clock->time();       // 1752321610
$clock->microtime();  // 1752321610.005

Mocking and Spies

The recommended approach is to always use TimeSpy for testing ($clock = new TimeSpy();) because calls to $clock->sleep() and $clock->usleep() do not delay execution even if you do not specifically mock them.

$mock = $this->createMock(DuoClock\TimeSpy::class);

$mock->expects($this->exactly(1))
    ->method('time')
    ->willReturn(self::TIME_BEFORE_LAUNCH);

$example = new ExampleUsingTime($mock);
$this->assertFalse($example->launch());

$mock = $this->createMock(DuoClock\TimeSpy::class);

$mock->expects($this->exactly(1))
    ->method('usleep')
    ->with(self::POLL_TIME);

$example = new ExampleUsingSleep($mock);
$example->waitDuringPolling();

Why DuoClock Exists

PHP now has PSR-20, a standard interface for representing the current time using immutable objects. This interface works well for many applications, but assumes that all time-based code should consume DateTimeImmutable. In practice, testing time-based code often requires mocking and emulating sleep() and usleep(), especially for retry logic, timeout simulations, or rate limiters. You do not want to wait for literal seconds for your sleep() tests to pass! PSR-20 offers no solution for this, which is where DuoClock steps in.

Development

# Run all checks (tests, static analysis, mutation testing)
make -j -k

License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0. See LICENSE for details.