TIMES(2)TIMES(2)NAMEtimes - get process and child process timesSYNOPSIS
#include <sys/times.h>
#include <limits.h>
clock_t times(struct tms *buffer);
DESCRIPTION
The times() function fills the tms structure pointed to by buffer with
time-accounting information. The tms structure, defined in
<sys/times.h>, contains the following members:
clock_t tms_utime;
clock_t tms_stime;
clock_t tms_cutime;
clock_t tms_cstime;
All times are reported in clock ticks. The specific value for a clock
tick is defined by the variable CLK_TCK, found in the header <lim‐
its.h>.
The times of a terminated child process are included in the tms_cutime
and tms_cstime members of the parent when wait(3C) or waitpid(3C)
returns the process ID of this terminated child. If a child process
has not waited for its children, their times will not be included in
its times.
The tms_utime member is the CPU time used while executing instructions
in the user space of the calling process.
The tms_stime member is the CPU time used by the system on behalf of
the calling process.
The tms_cutime member is the sum of the tms_utime and the tms_cutime of
the child processes.
The tms_cstime member is the sum of the tms_stime and the tms_cstime of
the child processes.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, times() returns the elapsed real time, in
clock ticks, since an arbitrary point in the past (for example, system
start-up time). This point does not change from one invocation of
times() within the process to another. The return value may overflow
the possible range of type clock_t. If times() fails, (clock_t)−1 is
returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The times() function will fail if:
EFAULT
The buffer argument points to an illegal address.
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
┌────────────────────┬───────────────────┐
│ ATTRIBUTE TYPE │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│Interface Stability │ Standard │
├────────────────────┼───────────────────┤
│MT-Level │ Async-Signal-Safe │
└────────────────────┴───────────────────┘
SEE ALSOtime(1), timex(1), exec(2), fork(2), time(2), waitid(2), wait(3C),
waitpid(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)
May 14, 1997 TIMES(2)
