time

display CPU and elapsed times for commands 

Command, KornShell Built-in

SYNOPSIS

time [-p] command-line

DESCRIPTION

time runs the command given as its argument and produces a breakdown of total time to execute, total time spent in the user program, and total time spent in system CPU overhead.

Times given are statistical, based on where execution is at a clock tick.

Options

-p 

guarantees that the historical format of the time command is output.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES

PATH 

determines the search path that time uses to locate the command specified in command-line.

DIAGNOSTICS

If time successfully invokes command-line, it returns the exit status of command-line; otherwise possible exit status values are:

0 

Successful completion.

1 

An error occurred in the time utility.

2 

Failure due to an invalid command line option.

126 

time found command but was unable to invoke it.

127 

time was unable to find command.

NOTE

time is provided as both an external utility and a built-in MKS KornShell utility. The external utility is provided because the shell built-in is not available to you when you are not running the MKS KornShell or you are running the shell in ksh mode. You can run the shell in ksh mode by launching it with the ksh command or by specifying -o korn (or -K) as an option to sh or set.

PORTABILITY

x/OPEN Portability Guide 4.0. All UNIX systems. Windows 10. Windows Server 2016. Windows Server 2019. Windows 11. Windows Server 2022. Windows Server 2025.

AVAILABILITY

PTC MKS Toolkit for Power Users
PTC MKS Toolkit for System Administrators
PTC MKS Toolkit for Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Interoperability
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Professional Developers 64-Bit Edition
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers
PTC MKS Toolkit for Enterprise Developers 64-Bit Edition

SEE ALSO

Commands:
sh

PTC MKS Toolkit 10.5 Documentation Build 40.