Processor Time (The GNU C Library)

#### 22.4.2 Processor Time Inquiry ¶

The `times` function returns information about a process’ consumption of processor time in a `struct tms` object, in addition to the process’ CPU time. See Time Basics. You should include the header file `sys/times.h` to use this facility.

Data Type: struct tms ¶

  The `tms` structure is used to return information about process times. It contains at least the following members:

  `clock_t tms_utime`

    This is the total processor time the calling process has used in executing the instructions of its program.

  `clock_t tms_stime`

    This is the processor time the system has used on behalf of the calling process.

  `clock_t tms_cutime`

    This is the sum of the `tms_utime` values and the `tms_cutime` values of all terminated child processes of the calling process, whose status has been reported to the parent process by `wait` or `waitpid`; see Process Completion. In other words, it represents the total processor time used in executing the instructions of all the terminated child processes of the calling process, excluding child processes which have not yet been reported by `wait` or `waitpid`.

  `clock_t tms_cstime`

    This is similar to `tms_cutime`, but represents the total processor time the system has used on behalf of all the terminated child processes of the calling process.

  All of the times are given in numbers of clock ticks. Unlike CPU time, these are the actual amounts of time; not relative to any event. See Creating a Process.

Macro: `int` CLK_TCK ¶

  This is an obsolete name for the number of clock ticks per second. Use `sysconf (_SC_CLK_TCK)` instead.

Function: `clock_t` times `(struct tms *buffer)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `times` function stores the processor time information for the calling process in buffer.

  The return value is the number of clock ticks since an arbitrary point in the past, e.g. since system start-up. `times` returns `(clock_t)(-1)` to indicate failure.

Portability Note: The `clock` function described in CPU Time Inquiry is specified by the ISO C standard. The `times` function is a feature of POSIX.1. On GNU systems, the CPU time is defined to be equivalent to the sum of the `tms_utime` and `tms_stime` fields returned by `times`.