xref: /dragonfly/usr.bin/time/time.1 (revision 86fe9e07)
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32.\"     @(#)time.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD: src/usr.bin/time/time.1,v 1.13.2.5 2002/12/29 16:35:40 schweikh Exp $
34.\" $DragonFly: src/usr.bin/time/time.1,v 1.3 2004/07/16 19:04:57 hmp Exp $
35.\"
36.Dd June 6, 1993
37.Dt TIME 1
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm time
41.Nd time command execution
42.Sh SYNOPSIS
43.Nm
44.Op Fl al
45.Op Fl h | Fl p
46.Op Fl o Ar file
47.Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Nm
51utility
52executes and
53times the specified
54.Ar utility .
55After the
56.Ar utility
57finishes,
58.Nm
59writes to the standard error stream,
60(in seconds):
61the total time elapsed,
62the time used to execute the
63.Ar utility
64process and the time consumed by system overhead.
65.Pp
66Available options:
67.Bl -tag -width Ds
68.It Fl a
69If the
70.Fl o
71flag is used, append to the specified file rather than overwriting
72it.
73Otherwise, this option has no effect.
74.It Fl h
75Print times in a human friendly format.
76Times are printed in minutes, hours,
77etc. as appropriate.
78.It Fl l
79The contents of the
80.Em rusage
81structure are printed as well.
82.It Fl o Ar file
83Write the output to
84.Ar file
85instead of stderr.
86If
87.Ar file
88exists and the
89.Fl a
90flag is not specified, the file will be overwritten.
91.It Fl p
92Makes
93.Nm
94output POSIX.2 compliant (each time is printed on its own line).
95.El
96.Pp
97Some shells may provide a builtin
98.Nm
99command which is similar or identical to this utility.
100Consult the
101.Xr builtin 1
102manual page.
103.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
104If
105.Ar utility
106could be timed successfully, its exit status is returned.
107If
108.Ar utility
109terminated abnormally, a warning message is output to stderr.
110If the
111.Ar utility
112was found but could not be run, the exit status is 126.
113If no
114.Ar utility
115could be found at all, the exit status is 127.
116If
117.Nm
118encounters any other error, the exit status is between 1 and 125
119included.
120.Sh SEE ALSO
121.Xr builtin 1 ,
122.Xr csh 1 ,
123.Xr getrusage 2 ,
124.Xr wait 2
125.Sh STANDARDS
126The
127.Nm
128utility is expected to conform to ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (``POSIX'').
129.Sh HISTORY
130A
131.Nm
132command appeared in
133.At v3 .
134