xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/time/time.1 (revision 09e8dea79366f1e5b3a73e8a271b26e4b6bf2e6a)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
13.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
14.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
15.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
16.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     @(#)time.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 6, 1993
36.Dt TIME 1
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm time
40.Nd time command execution
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl al
44.Op Fl h | Fl p
45.Op Fl o Ar file
46.Ar utility Op Ar argument ...
47.Sh DESCRIPTION
48The
49.Nm
50utility
51executes and
52times the specified
53.Ar utility .
54After the
55.Ar utility
56finishes,
57.Nm
58writes to the standard error stream,
59(in seconds):
60the total time elapsed,
61the time used to execute the
62.Ar utility
63process and the time consumed by system overhead.
64.Pp
65Available options:
66.Bl -tag -width Ds
67.It Fl a
68If the
69.Fl o
70flag is used, append to the specified file rather than overwriting
71it.
72Otherwise, this option has no effect.
73.It Fl h
74Print times in a human friendly format.  Times are printed in minutes, hours,
75etc. as appropiate.
76.It Fl l
77The contents of the
78.Em rusage
79structure are printed as well.
80.It Fl o Ar file
81Write the output to
82.Ar file
83instead of stderr.  If
84.Ar file
85exists and the
86.Fl a
87flag is not specified, the file will be overwritten.
88.It Fl p
89Makes
90.Nm
91output POSIX.2 compliant (each time is printed on its own line).
92.El
93.Pp
94Some shells may provide a builtin
95.Nm
96command which is similar or identical to this utility.
97Consult the
98.Xr builtin 1
99manual page.
100.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
101If
102.Ar utility
103could be timed successfully, its exit status is returned.
104If
105.Ar utility
106terminated abnormally, a warning message is output to stderr.
107If the
108.Ar utility
109was found but could not be run, the exit status is 126.
110If no
111.Ar utility
112could be found at all, the exit status is 127.
113If
114.Nm
115encounters any other error, the exit status is between 1 and 125
116included.
117.Sh SEE ALSO
118.Xr builtin 1 ,
119.Xr csh 1 ,
120.Xr getrusage 2 ,
121.Xr wait 2
122.Sh STANDARDS
123The
124.Nm
125utility is expected to conform to ISO/IEC 9945-2:1993 (``POSIX'').
126.Sh HISTORY
127A
128.Nm
129command appeared in
130.At v3 .
131