time is a command in the Unix operating systems. It is used to determine the duration of execution of a particular command. ==Usage== To use the command, simply precede any command by the word time, such as:
When the command completes, time will report how long it took to execute the ls command in terms of user CPU time, system CPU time, and real time. The output format varies between different versions of the command, and some give additional statistics, as in this example:
time(1) can exist as a standalone program (such as GNU time) or as a shell builtin (e.g. in tcsh or in zsh).