NAME

times − get process and child process times

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/times.h>

long times (buffer)
struct tms ∗buffer;

DESCRIPTION

times fills the structure pointed to by buffer with time-accounting information.  The following are the contents of this structure:

structtms {
time_ttms_utime;
time_ttms_stime;
time_ttms_cutime;
time_ttms_cstime;
};

This information comes from the calling process and each of its terminated child processes for which it has executed a wait. All times are reported in clock ticks per second. Clock ticks are a system-dependent parameter. The specific value for an implementation is defined by the variable HZ, found in the include file <param.h>.

tms_utime is the CPU time used while executing instructions in the user space of the calling process. 

tms_stime is the CPU time used by the system on behalf of the calling process. 

tms_cutime is the sum of the tms_utimes and tms_cutimes of the child processes.

tms_cstime is the sum of the tms_stimes and tms_cstimes of the child processes.

­[EFAULT] times will fail if buffer points to an illegal address. 

SEE ALSO

exec(2), fork(2), time(2), wait(2). 

DIAGNOSTICS

Upon successful completion, times returns the elapsed real time, in clock ticks per second, from an arbitrary point in the past (e.g., system start-up time).  This point does not change from one invocation of times to another.  If times fails, a −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. 

September 02, 1992