time(1) General Commands Manual time(1)
NAME
time - time a command
SYNOPSIS
command
utility [argument ...]
DESCRIPTION
When a specified command or utility completes execution, prints the elapsed time during the command or utility, the time spent in the sys-
tem, 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 that times an entire pipeline if used anywhere in the pipeline. This action is different than the
command which times a particular command if used in a pipeline.
Options
recognizes the following options:
command The command to be executed and timed.
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(1)