clock(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ATTRIBUTES | CONFORMING TO | NOTES | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON

CLOCK(3)                Linux Programmer's Manual               CLOCK(3)

NAME         top

       clock - determine processor time

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <time.h>

       clock_t clock(void);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The clock() function returns an approximation of processor time
       used by the program.

RETURN VALUE         top

       The value returned is the CPU time used so far as a clock_t; to
       get the number of seconds used, divide by CLOCKS_PER_SEC.  If the
       processor time used is not available or its value cannot be
       represented, the function returns the value (clock_t) -1.

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).

       ┌──────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                             Attribute     Value   │
       ├──────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │clock()                               │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └──────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO         top

       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, C99.  XSI requires that
       CLOCKS_PER_SEC equals 1000000 independent of the actual
       resolution.

NOTES         top

       The C standard allows for arbitrary values at the start of the
       program; subtract the value returned from a call to clock() at
       the start of the program to get maximum portability.

       Note that the time can wrap around.  On a 32-bit system where
       CLOCKS_PER_SEC equals 1000000 this function will return the same
       value approximately every 72 minutes.

       On several other implementations, the value returned by clock()
       also includes the times of any children whose status has been
       collected via wait(2) (or another wait-type call).  Linux does
       not include the times of waited-for children in the value
       returned by clock().  The times(2) function, which explicitly
       returns (separate) information about the caller and its children,
       may be preferable.

       In glibc 2.17 and earlier, clock() was implemented on top of
       times(2).  For improved accuracy, since glibc 2.18, it is
       implemented on top of clock_gettime(2) (using the
       CLOCK_PROCESS_CPUTIME_ID clock).

SEE ALSO         top

       clock_gettime(2), getrusage(2), times(2)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 5.13 of the Linux man-pages project.
       A description of the project, information about reporting bugs,
       and the latest version of this page, can be found at
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU                            2021-03-22                       CLOCK(3)

Pages that refer to this page: getrusage(2)times(2)ctime(3)system_data_types(7)time(7)