time.1 (2010 09)
t
time(1) time(1)
NAME
time - time a command
SYNOPSIS
time command
time [-p] utility [argument ...]
DESCRIPTION
When a specified command or utility completes execution,
time prints the elapsed time during the com-
mand or utility, the time spent in the system, and the time spent executing the command or utility.
Times are reported in seconds.
Execution time can depend on the performance of the memory in which the program is running.
The times are printed to standard error.
Note that the shell also has a keyword
time that times an entire pipeline if used anywhere in the pipe-
line. This action is different than the
time command which times a particular command if used in a
pipeline.
Options
time recognizes the following options:
command
The command to be executed and timed.
-p Writes the timing statistics to standard error.
utility The name of a utility to be invoked and timed. If the utility operand names any of the
shell special built-in utilities, the time results are undefined. See csh(1) and ksh(1) for
information about special built-in utilities.
argument
Any string that is an argument to the utility .
SEE ALSO
csh(1), ksh(1), sh(1), timex(1), times(2).
STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
time: SVID2, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, POSIX.2
HP-UX 11i Version 3: September 2010 − 1 − Hewlett-Packard Company 1