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How do I measure duration in seconds in a shell script?

I wish to find out how long an operation takes in a Linux shell script. How can I do this?

Solution

  • Using the time command, as others have suggested, is a good idea.

    Another option is to use the magic built-in variable $SECONDS, which contains the number of seconds since the script started executing. You can say:

    START_TIME=$SECONDS
dosomething
ELAPSED_TIME=$(($SECONDS - $START_TIME))

    I think this is bash-specific, but since you're on Linux, I assume you're using bash.