For converting a time object to seconds past epoch, you can use:
t = Time.now
t.to_i
would output the normal PHP-like seconds since epoch,
983254402
See ruby.ch
This doesn’t provide the full functionality of strtotime though, as it doesn’t manage the conversion from a string to a time object, for that you can try:
require ‘parsedate’
mydate = ‘Jan 1, 2006’
t = Time.local(*ParseDate.parsedate(mydate)).to_i
See rubycentral.com