simple c++ time program error - c++

Question

I am messing around with the time header and have encountered an error:
invalid conversion from 'tm*' to 'time_t'
You can see the where the error is in the code below all the way at the bottom when I try to use the difftime function. I know im just doing something stupid and illegal but I cant see how I can get around this. If anyone has a solution let me know. Thanks!
The program is supposed to get the current time, take time input from a user, and then find the time difference.
Code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
int main ()
{
time_t rawtime;
struct tm * timeinfo;
struct tm * cur_timeinfo_hold;
int year, month ,day,hour,minute,second;
double dif;
/* prompt user for time to be compared*/
printf ("Enter year: "); scanf ("%d",&year);
printf ("Enter month: "); scanf ("%d",&month);
printf ("Enter day: "); scanf ("%d",&day);
printf ("Enter hour: "); scanf ("%d",&hour);
printf ("Enter minute: "); scanf ("%d",&minute);
printf ("Enter second: "); scanf ("%d",&second);
/* get current timeinfo*/
time ( &rawtime );
timeinfo = localtime ( &rawtime );
/* print it */
printf("The present time is: "); printf(asctime (timeinfo));
/* set current time into a new variable to use for difftime, since timeinfo, will be changed */
cur_timeinfo_hold = timeinfo;
/* modify current timeinfo to the user's choice */
timeinfo->tm_year = year - 1900;
timeinfo->tm_mon = month - 1;
timeinfo->tm_mday = day;
timeinfo->tm_hour = hour;
timeinfo->tm_min = minute;
timeinfo->tm_sec = second;
mktime ( timeinfo );
/* and print it */
printf ("time to compare: "); printf(asctime (timeinfo));
/* find time difference */
//dif = difftime (cur_timeinfo_hold,timeinfo); //error: invalid conversion from 'tm*' to 'time_t'
return 0;
}

Answer 1

mktime is a function. It accepts one parameter, a tm pointer, and returns a value, a time_t. It does not transform its argument from one type into another. Therefore, after you call mktime(timeinfo), your timeinfo variable is still a tm pointer.
The difftime function expects to receive two time_t values, so it won't accept cur_timeinfo_hold or timeinfo; they're the wrong type. The first variable's value came from converting rawtime to a tm pointer with localtime, so use that for the first parameter. When you later called mktime(timeinfo), it returned a time_t value, but you ignored the return value. Assign the return value to a variable so you can use it for the second difftime parameter.
time_t info = mktime(timeinfo);
// ...
dif = difftime(rawtime, info);

Answer 2

It's because difftime requires the raw time_t values, not the struct tm structures.
The prototype is:
double difftime(time_t time1, time_t time0);
What you'll need to do is leave the system time as it is (no localtime performed on it) and then properly convert your user-entered information into the equivalent time_t with mktime (or timegm if working with UTC times).
Then you can use difftime to get the difference. Effectively, something like:
time_t base, other;
struct tm tms;
double delta;
time (&base); // basetime is now.
tms.blah = blah; // for all blahs.
other = mktime (&tms); // get time_t for other time.
delta = difftime (other, base); // get difference.