xref: /freebsd/usr.bin/time/time.1 (revision 4cf49a43559ed9fdad601bdcccd2c55963008675)
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32.\"     @(#)time.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 6, 1993
36.Dt TIME 1
37.Os BSD 4
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm time
40.Nd time command execution
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm
43.Op Fl alp
44.Op Fl o Ar file
45.Ar command
46.Sh DESCRIPTION
47The
48.Nm
49utility
50executes and
51times
52.Ar command
53by initiating a timer and passing the
54.Ar command
55to the
56shell.
57After the
58.Ar command
59finishes,
60.Nm
61writes to the standard error stream,
62(in seconds):
63the total time elapsed,
64the time used to execute the
65.Ar command
66process and the time consumed by system overhead.
67.Pp
68Available options:
69.Bl -tag -width Ds
70.It Fl a
71If the
72.Fl o
73flag is used, append to the specified file rather than overwriting
74it.
75Otherwise, this option has no effect.
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 command
103could be timed successfully, its exit status is returned.
104If
105.Ar command
106terminated abnormally, a warning message is output to stderr.
107If the
108.Ar command
109was found but could not be run, the exit status is 126.
110If no
111.Ar command
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 v6 .
131