times

Purpose

     Gets process and child process times.

Syntax

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

     time_t times (buffer)
     struct tms *buffer;

Description

     The times system  call fills the structure  pointed to by
     the  buffer parameter  with time-accounting  information.
     All time values reported by  the times system call are in
     10ths of a second, unless execution profiling is enabled.
     When profiling is enabled,  times reports values in 60ths
     of a second.  (For  more information about profiling, see
     "profil," "monitor," and the  cc and prof commands in AIX
     Operating System Commands Reference.)

     The tms structure  is defined in sys/times.h  and it con-
     tains the following members:

          time_t  tms_utime;
          time_t  tms_stime;
          time_t  tms_cutime;
          time_t  tms_cstime;

     This information comes from  the calling process and each
     of its terminated  child processes for which  it has exe-
     cuted a wait system call.

     tms_utime     The   CPU   time   used   while   executing
                   instructions  in  the  user  space  of  the
                   calling process.
     tms_stime     The CPU  time used by the  system on behalf
                   of the calling process.
     tms_cutime    The   sum  of   the   tms_utimes  and   the
                   tms_cutimes of the child processes.
     tms_cstime    The   sum  of   the   tms_stimes  and   the
                   tms_cstimes of the child processes.

     Note:  The system measures  time by counting clock inter-
     rupts.  The precision of the values reported by the times
     system call depends on the rate at which the clock inter-
     rupts occur.

Return Value

     Upon successful completion, the times system call returns
     the elapsed real  time, in 10ths of a  second (60ths when
     profiling), since an arbitrary reference time in the past
     (for example, system start-up time).  This reference time
     does not  change from one  call of times to  another.  If
     the times system  call fails, a -1 is  returned and errno
     is set to indicate the error.

Diagnostics

     The times system call fails if the following is true:

     EFAULT     The buffer parameter &pointsout..

Related Information

     In  this book:   "exec:   execl,  execv, execle,  execve,
     execlp,  execvp," "fork,"  "profil," "time,"  "wait," and
     "monitor."

     The cc and prof commands in AIX Operating System Commands
     Reference.