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Accepted
orschiro
Asked: 2016-11-09 11:18:31 +0800 CST

How can I track time from the command-line?

  • 772

I am looking for a command to track the time.

I imagine the following workflow:

  1. Run the command
  2. ...do something else...
  3. Return to the terminal window and stop the command
  4. As an output you receive the time elapsed between 3 and 1
command-line

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    This answer suggests to use 

    time cat

    and use Ctrl-D to see the time.

    You can also use 

    time read

    and use Enter key

    Also check this answer on the same question

    • 20

  2. How about:

    stopwatch() { 
    local start=$SECONDS
    read -p "Hit Enter..."
    echo $((SECONDS-start)) seconds elapsed
}

    In action:

    $ stopwatch 
Hit Enter...
14 seconds elapsed
    • 6

  3. Simple way of doing it is to take start time, and once you stop the script - take stop time. Finally, print the time difference. This can easily be done with Python:

    python -c $'import time;start=time.time();\ntry:\n\twhile True: time.sleep(0.25)\nexcept: print(time.time()-start)'

    Or long version for readability:

    import time
start=time.time();
try:
    while True: time.sleep(0.25)
except: 
    print(time.time()-start)

    Stopping is done with Ctrl+C

    • 3