ext::Time::HiRes:PerleProgrammers Refeext::Time::HiRes::HiRes(3p)NAMETime::HiRes - High resolution alarm, sleep, gettimeofday,
interval timers
SYNOPSIS
use Time::HiRes qw( usleep ualarm gettimeofday tv_interval nanosleep
clock_gettime clock_getres clock_nanosleep clock );
usleep ($microseconds);
nanosleep ($nanoseconds);
ualarm ($microseconds);
ualarm ($microseconds, $interval_microseconds);
$t0 = [gettimeofday];
($seconds, $microseconds) = gettimeofday;
$elapsed = tv_interval ( $t0, [$seconds, $microseconds]);
$elapsed = tv_interval ( $t0, [gettimeofday]);
$elapsed = tv_interval ( $t0 );
use Time::HiRes qw ( time alarm sleep );
$now_fractions = time;
sleep ($floating_seconds);
alarm ($floating_seconds);
alarm ($floating_seconds, $floating_interval);
use Time::HiRes qw( setitimer getitimer
ITIMER_REAL ITIMER_VIRTUAL ITIMER_PROF ITIMER_REALPROF );
setitimer ($which, $floating_seconds, $floating_interval );
getitimer ($which);
$realtime = clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME);
$resolution = clock_getres(CLOCK_REALTIME);
clock_nanosleep(CLOCK_REALTIME, 1.5);
clock_nanosleep(CLOCK_REALTIME, time() + 10, TIMER_ABSTIME);
my $ticktock = clock();
DESCRIPTION
The "Time::HiRes" module implements a Perl interface to the
"usleep", "nanosleep", "ualarm", "gettimeofday", and
"setitimer"/"getitimer" system calls, in other words, high
resolution time and timers. See the "EXAMPLES" section below
and the test scripts for usage; see your system documenta-
tion for the description of the underlying "nanosleep" or
"usleep", "ualarm", "gettimeofday", and
"setitimer"/"getitimer" calls.
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If your system lacks "gettimeofday()" or an emulation of it
you don't get "gettimeofday()" or the one-argument form of
"tv_interval()". If your system lacks all of "nanosleep()",
"usleep()", "select()", and "poll", you don't get
"Time::HiRes::usleep()", "Time::HiRes::nanosleep()", or
"Time::HiRes::sleep()". If your system lacks both "ualarm()"
and "setitimer()" you don't get "Time::HiRes::ualarm()" or
"Time::HiRes::alarm()".
If you try to import an unimplemented function in the "use"
statement it will fail at compile time.
If your subsecond sleeping is implemented with "nanosleep()"
instead of "usleep()", you can mix subsecond sleeping with
signals since "nanosleep()" does not use signals. This,
however, is not portable, and you should first check for the
truth value of &Time::HiRes::d_nanosleep to see whether you
have nanosleep, and then carefully read your "nanosleep()" C
API documentation for any peculiarities.
If you are using "nanosleep" for something else than mixing
sleeping with signals, give some thought to whether Perl is
the tool you should be using for work requiring nanosecond
accuracies.
The following functions can be imported from this module. No
functions are exported by default.
gettimeofday ()
In array context returns a two-element array with the
seconds and microseconds since the epoch. In scalar
context returns floating seconds like
"Time::HiRes::time()" (see below).
usleep ( $useconds )
Sleeps for the number of microseconds (millionths of a
second) specified. Returns the number of microseconds
actually slept. Can sleep for more than one second,
unlike the "usleep" system call. Can also sleep for zero
seconds, which often works like a thread yield. See also
"Time::HiRes::usleep()", "Time::HiRes::sleep()", and
"Time::HiRes::clock_nanosleep()".
Do not expect usleep() to be exact down to one
microsecond.
nanosleep ( $nanoseconds )
Sleeps for the number of nanoseconds (1e9ths of a
second) specified. Returns the number of nanoseconds
actually slept (accurate only to microseconds, the
nearest thousand of them). Can sleep for more than one
second. Can also sleep for zero seconds, which often
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works like a thread yield. See also
"Time::HiRes::sleep()", "Time::HiRes::usleep()", and
"Time::HiRes::clock_nanosleep()".
Do not expect nanosleep() to be exact down to one
nanosecond. Getting even accuracy of one thousand
nanoseconds is good.
ualarm ( $useconds [, $interval_useconds ] )
Issues a "ualarm" call; the $interval_useconds is
optional and will be zero if unspecified, resulting in
"alarm"-like behaviour.
Note that the interaction between alarms and sleeps is
unspecified.
tv_interval
tv_interval ( $ref_to_gettimeofday [,
$ref_to_later_gettimeofday] )
Returns the floating seconds between the two times,
which should have been returned by "gettimeofday()". If
the second argument is omitted, then the current time is
used.
time ()
Returns a floating seconds since the epoch. This func-
tion can be imported, resulting in a nice drop-in
replacement for the "time" provided with core Perl; see
the "EXAMPLES" below.
NOTE 1: This higher resolution timer can return values
either less or more than the core "time()", depending on
whether your platform rounds the higher resolution timer
values up, down, or to the nearest second to get the
core "time()", but naturally the difference should be
never more than half a second. See also "clock_getres",
if available in your system.
NOTE 2: Since Sunday, September 9th, 2001 at 01:46:40 AM
GMT, when the "time()" seconds since epoch rolled over
to 1_000_000_000, the default floating point format of
Perl and the seconds since epoch have conspired to pro-
duce an apparent bug: if you print the value of
"Time::HiRes::time()" you seem to be getting only five
decimals, not six as promised (microseconds). Not to
worry, the microseconds are there (assuming your plat-
form supports such granularity in the first place).
What is going on is that the default floating point for-
mat of Perl only outputs 15 digits. In this case that
means ten digits before the decimal separator and five
after. To see the microseconds you can use either
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"printf"/"sprintf" with "%.6f", or the "gettimeofday()"
function in list context, which will give you the
seconds and microseconds as two separate values.
sleep ( $floating_seconds )
Sleeps for the specified amount of seconds. Returns the
number of seconds actually slept (a floating point
value). This function can be imported, resulting in a
nice drop-in replacement for the "sleep" provided with
perl, see the "EXAMPLES" below.
Note that the interaction between alarms and sleeps is
unspecified.
alarm ( $floating_seconds [, $interval_floating_seconds ] )
The "SIGALRM" signal is sent after the specified number
of seconds. Implemented using "ualarm()". The
$interval_floating_seconds argument is optional and will
be zero if unspecified, resulting in "alarm()"-like
behaviour. This function can be imported, resulting in
a nice drop-in replacement for the "alarm" provided with
perl, see the "EXAMPLES" below.
NOTE 1: With some combinations of operating systems and
Perl releases "SIGALRM" restarts "select()", instead of
interrupting it. This means that an "alarm()" followed
by a "select()" may together take the sum of the times
specified for the the "alarm()" and the "select()", not
just the time of the "alarm()".
Note that the interaction between alarms and sleeps is
unspecified.
$interval_floating_seconds ] )
setitimer ( $which, $floating_seconds [,
Start up an interval timer: after a certain time, a sig-
nal arrives, and more signals may keep arriving at cer-
tain intervals. To disable an "itimer", use
$floating_seconds of zero. If the
$interval_floating_seconds is set to zero (or unspeci-
fied), the timer is disabled after the next delivered
signal.
Use of interval timers may interfere with "alarm()",
"sleep()", and "usleep()". In standard-speak the
"interaction is unspecified", which means that anything
may happen: it may work, it may not.
In scalar context, the remaining time in the timer is
returned.
In list context, both the remaining time and the
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interval are returned.
There are usually three or four interval timers avail-
able: the $which can be "ITIMER_REAL", "ITIMER_VIRTUAL",
"ITIMER_PROF", or "ITIMER_REALPROF". Note that which
ones are available depends: true UNIX platforms usually
have the first three, but (for example) Win32 and Cygwin
have only "ITIMER_REAL", and only Solaris seems to have
"ITIMER_REALPROF" (which is used to profile mul-
tithreaded programs).
"ITIMER_REAL" results in "alarm()"-like behaviour. Time
is counted in real time; that is, wallclock time.
"SIGALRM" is delivered when the timer expires.
"ITIMER_VIRTUAL" counts time in (process) virtual time;
that is, only when the process is running. In
multiprocessor/user/CPU systems this may be more or less
than real or wallclock time. (This time is also known
as the user time.) "SIGVTALRM" is delivered when the
timer expires.
"ITIMER_PROF" counts time when either the process vir-
tual time or when the operating system is running on
behalf of the process (such as I/O). (This time is also
known as the system time.) (The sum of user time and
system time is known as the CPU time.) "SIGPROF" is
delivered when the timer expires. "SIGPROF" can inter-
rupt system calls.
The semantics of interval timers for multithreaded pro-
grams are system-specific, and some systems may support
additional interval timers. See your "setitimer()"
documentation.
getitimer ( $which )
Return the remaining time in the interval timer speci-
fied by $which.
In scalar context, the remaining time is returned.
In list context, both the remaining time and the inter-
val are returned. The interval is always what you put in
using "setitimer()".
clock_gettime ( $which )
Return as seconds the current value of the POSIX high
resolution timer specified by $which. All implementa-
tions that support POSIX high resolution timers are sup-
posed to support at least the $which value of
"CLOCK_REALTIME", which is supposed to return results
close to the results of "gettimeofday", or the number of
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seconds since 00:00:00:00 January 1, 1970 Greenwich Mean
Time (GMT). Do not assume that CLOCK_REALTIME is zero,
it might be one, or something else. Another potentially
useful (but not available everywhere) value is
"CLOCK_MONOTONIC", which guarantees a monotonically
increasing time value (unlike time(), which can be
adjusted). See your system documentation for other pos-
sibly supported values.
clock_getres ( $which )
Return as seconds the resolution of the POSIX high reso-
lution timer specified by $which. All implementations
that support POSIX high resolution timers are supposed
to support at least the $which value of
"CLOCK_REALTIME", see "clock_gettime".
clock_nanosleep ( $which, $seconds, $flags = 0)
Sleeps for the number of seconds (1e9ths of a second)
specified. Returns the number of seconds actually slept.
The $which is the "clock id", as with clock_gettime()
and clock_getres(). The flags default to zero but
"TIMER_ABSTIME" can specified (must be exported expli-
citly) which means that $nanoseconds is not a time
interval (as is the default) but instead an absolute
time. Can sleep for more than one second. Can also
sleep for zero seconds, which often works like a thread
yield. See also "Time::HiRes::sleep()",
"Time::HiRes::usleep()", and "Time::HiRes::nanosleep()".
Do not expect clock_nanosleep() to be exact down to one
nanosecond. Getting even accuracy of one thousand
nanoseconds is good.
clock()
Return as seconds the process time (user + system time)
spent by the process since the first call to clock()
(the definition is not "since the start of the process",
though if you are lucky these times may be quite close
to each other, depending on the system). What this
means is that you probably need to store the result of
your first call to clock(), and subtract that value from
the following results of clock().
The time returned also includes the process times of the
terminated child processes for which wait() has been
executed. This value is somewhat like the second value
returned by the times() of core Perl, but not neces-
sarily identical. Note that due to backward compatibil-
ity limitations the returned value may wrap around at
about 2147 seconds or at about 36 minutes.
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use Time::HiRes qw(usleep ualarm gettimeofday tv_interval);
$microseconds = 750_000;
usleep($microseconds);
# signal alarm in 2.5s & every .1s thereafter
ualarm(2_500_000, 100_000);
# get seconds and microseconds since the epoch
($s, $usec) = gettimeofday();
# measure elapsed time
# (could also do by subtracting 2 gettimeofday return values)
$t0 = [gettimeofday];
# do bunch of stuff here
$t1 = [gettimeofday];
# do more stuff here
$t0_t1 = tv_interval $t0, $t1;
$elapsed = tv_interval ($t0, [gettimeofday]);
$elapsed = tv_interval ($t0); # equivalent code
#
# replacements for time, alarm and sleep that know about
# floating seconds
#
use Time::HiRes;
$now_fractions = Time::HiRes::time;
Time::HiRes::sleep (2.5);
Time::HiRes::alarm (10.6666666);
use Time::HiRes qw ( time alarm sleep );
$now_fractions = time;
sleep (2.5);
alarm (10.6666666);
# Arm an interval timer to go off first at 10 seconds and
# after that every 2.5 seconds, in process virtual time
use Time::HiRes qw ( setitimer ITIMER_VIRTUAL time );
$SIG{VTALRM} = sub { print time, "\n" };
setitimer(ITIMER_VIRTUAL, 10, 2.5);
use Time::HiRes qw( clock_gettime clock_getres CLOCK_REALTIME );
# Read the POSIX high resolution timer.
my $high = clock_getres(CLOCK_REALTIME);
# But how accurate we can be, really?
my $reso = clock_getres(CLOCK_REALTIME);
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use Time::HiRes qw( clock_nanosleep TIMER_ABSTIME );
clock_nanosleep(CLOCK_REALTIME, 1e6);
clock_nanosleep(CLOCK_REALTIME, 2e9, TIMER_ABSTIME);
use Time::HiRes qw( clock );
my $clock0 = clock();
... # Do something.
my $clock1 = clock();
my $clockd = $clock1 - $clock0;
C API
In addition to the perl API described above, a C API is
available for extension writers. The following C functions
are available in the modglobal hash:
name C prototype
--------------- ----------------------
Time::NVtime double (*)()
Time::U2time void (*)(pTHX_ UV ret[2])
Both functions return equivalent information (like "get-
timeofday") but with different representations. The names
"NVtime" and "U2time" were selected mainly because they are
operating system independent. ("gettimeofday" is
Unix-centric, though some platforms like Win32 and VMS have
emulations for it.)
Here is an example of using "NVtime" from C:
double (*myNVtime)(); /* Returns -1 on failure. */
SV **svp = hv_fetch(PL_modglobal, "Time::NVtime", 12, 0);
if (!svp) croak("Time::HiRes is required");
if (!SvIOK(*svp)) croak("Time::NVtime isn't a function pointer");
myNVtime = INT2PTR(double(*)(), SvIV(*svp));
printf("The current time is: %f\n", (*myNVtime)());
DIAGNOSTICS
negative time not invented yet
You tried to use a negative time argument.
internal error: useconds < 0 (unsigned ... signed ...)
Something went horribly wrong-- the number of microseconds
that cannot become negative just became negative. Maybe
your compiler is broken?
CAVEATS
Notice that the core "time()" maybe rounding rather than
truncating. What this means is that the core "time()" may be
reporting the time as one second later than "gettimeofday()"
and "Time::HiRes::time()".
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Adjusting the system clock (either manually or by services
like ntp) may cause problems, especially for long running
programs that assume a monotonously increasing time (note
that all platforms do not adjust time as gracefully as UNIX
ntp does). For example in Win32 (and derived platforms like
Cygwin and MinGW) the Time::HiRes::time() may temporarily
drift off from the system clock (and the original time())
by up to 0.5 seconds. Time::HiRes will notice this eventu-
ally and recalibrate. Note that since Time::HiRes 1.77 the
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC) might help in this (in case
your system supports CLOCK_MONOTONIC).
SEE ALSO
Perl modules BSD::Resource, Time::TAI64.
Your system documentation for "clock_gettime",
"clock_settime", "gettimeofday", "getitimer", "setitimer",
"ualarm".
AUTHORS
D. Wegscheid <wegscd@whirlpool.com> R. Schertler
<roderick@argon.org> J. Hietaniemi <jhi@iki.fi> G. Aas
<gisle@aas.no>
COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE
Copyright (c) 1996-2002 Douglas E. Wegscheid. All rights
reserved.
Copyright (c) 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 Jarkko Hietaniemi. All
rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it
and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.
perl v5.8.8 2005-02-05 9
