Get program execution time in the shell

linux bash shell
ʞɔıu picture ʞɔıu · Dec 22, 2008 · Viewed 410.9k times · Source

I want to execute something in a linux shell under a few different conditions, and be able to output the execution time of each execution.

I know I could write a perl or python script that would do this, but is there a way I can do it in the shell? (which happens to be bash)

Answer

Robert Gamble picture Robert Gamble · Dec 22, 2008

Use the built-in time keyword:

$ help time

time: time [-p] PIPELINE
    Execute PIPELINE and print a summary of the real time, user CPU time,
    and system CPU time spent executing PIPELINE when it terminates.
    The return status is the return status of PIPELINE.  The `-p' option
    prints the timing summary in a slightly different format.  This uses
    the value of the TIMEFORMAT variable as the output format.

Example:

$ time sleep 2

real    0m2.009s
user    0m0.000s
sys     0m0.004s

Related questions

How do I prompt for Yes/No/Cancel input in a Linux shell script?

I want to pause input in a shell script, and prompt the user for choices. The standard Yes, No, or Cancel type question. How do I accomplish this in a typical bash prompt?

Read More
How to run a shell script on a Unix console or Mac terminal?

I know it, forget it and relearn it again. Time to write it down.

Read More
How do I test if a variable is a number in Bash?

I just can't figure out how do I make sure an argument passed to my script is a number or not. All I want to do is something like this: test *isnumber* $1 && VAR=$1 || echo "need a number" Any …

Read More