The time.gmtime() function converts seconds representing a timestamp since the epoch  into a UTC (   Coordinated Universal Time) in form of a struct_time object.  A struct_time object has attributes that  makes it easier to access the individual components of time i.e year, month, day, hour, minutes, seconds, etc.

The main difference between localtime() and gmtime() functions is that localtime() returns the local time of the machine where the code is running, while gmtime() returns the current Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) including timezone offset.

gmtime(secs = None)
secs Optional argument for seconds representing time since the epoch to be converted into UTC time. If not given, the function will use the currentsystem time.

The function returns a struct_time object representing  the time in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).    The returned object includes a time tuple that includes fields such as year, month, day, hour, minute, second, and microsecond, along with other attributes related to date and time.

Using the gmtime() function to get the current UTC time..

#importing the time module
import time 

current_time = time.gmtime() 

print(current_time)

Using gmtime() with a timestamp given.

#import the time module
import time

past_timestamp = 1521002400

#get the utc time
struct_obj = time.gmtime(past_timestamp)

print(struct_obj)

Accessing individual elements of a struct_time object 

We can access the individual components of the timestamp represented by a struct_time object using its various attributes.

get the individual components of a timestamp

#importing the time module
import time 

current_time = time.gmtime() 

print("year: ", current_time.tm_year)
print("month: ", current_time.tm_mon)
print("Day: ", current_time.tm_mday)
print("Hour: ", current_time.tm_hour)
print("minute: ", current_time.tm_min)
print("second: ", current_time.tm_sec)

Convert a struct_time object into a formatted string

We can convert the returned struct_time object into a formatted, human-readable string.

Convert a struct_time object into a string

import time

timestamp = 1599496800

time_obj = time.gmtime(timestamp)

formatted_date = time.strftime("%d %b %Y  %I:%M:%S %p", time_obj)
print(formatted_date)

You can on time module usage to see more on formatting date and time.