time(1)

time1

Time command execution

Usage

time [-lp] utility [argument ...]

Overview

time executes and times utility. After the utility finishes, time writes the total time elapsed, the time consumed by system overhead, and the time used to execute utility to the standard error stream. Times are reported in seconds.

The options are as follows:

-l

The contents of the rusage structure are printed.

-p

The output is formatted as specified by IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (“POSIX.2”).

Files

/usr/include/sys/resource.h

Exit status

The time utility exits with one of the following values:

1-125

An error occurred in the time utility.

126

The utility was found but could not be invoked.

127

The utility could not be found.

Otherwise, the exit status of time shall be that of utility.

Releases

61 releases since OpenBSD 2.1; the text changed 11 times.

  1. 2.1–2.4
  2. 2.5
  3. 2.6
  4. 2.7–3.0
  5. 3.1–3.3
  6. 3.4–4.1
  7. 4.2–4.4
  8. 4.5–4.6
  9. 4.7–4.8
  10. 4.9–6.4
  11. 6.5–7.2
  12. 7.3–8.0

Standards

The time utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.

The flag [-l] is an extension to that specification.

time also exists as a built-in to csh(1) and ksh(1), though with a different syntax.

History

A time command appeared in Version 3 AT&T UNIX.

From man 8.0-current-20261101 in OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01). Parsed by carta from the page's mdoc source.