time - time command execution time command [ arg ... ] Time executes the command with the given arguments, and reports on standard error the command's load time, real time for execution, and the total, in seconds. The load time is just the time for time itself to load command ; loads done later by the command are included in the real time. To time a pipeline, use the -c option to sh (1): "time sh -c 'ps | grep Sh'" /appl/cmd/time.b sh (1), sys-millisec (2) There is no way to measure CPU time (real or virtual) used by a command.