Bash script to calculate time elapsed

Question

I am writing a script in bash to calculate the time elapsed for the execution of my commands, consider:

STARTTIME=$(date +%s)
#command block that takes time to complete...
#........
ENDTIME=$(date +%s)
echo "It takes $($ENDTIME - $STARTTIME) seconds to complete this task..."

I guess my logic is correct however I end up with the following print out:

"It takes seconds to complete this task..."

Anything wrong with my string evaluation?

I believe bash variables are untyped, I would love if there is a "string to integer" method in bash nevertheless.

Answer 1

I find it very clean to use the internal variable "$SECONDS"

SECONDS=0 ; sleep 10 ; echo $SECONDS

Answer 2

Either $(()) or $[] will work for computing the result of an arithmetic operation. You're using $() which is simply taking the string and evaluating it as a command. It's a bit of a subtle distinction. Hope this helps.

As tink pointed out in the comments on this answer, $[] is deprecated, and $(()) should be favored.

Answer 3

You are trying to execute the number in the ENDTIME as a command. You should also see an error like 1370306857: command not found. Instead use the arithmetic expansion:

echo "It takes $(($ENDTIME - $STARTTIME)) seconds to complete this task..."

You could also save the commands in a separate script, commands.sh, and use time command:

time commands.sh

Answer 4

You can use Bash's time keyword here with an appropriate format string

TIMEFORMAT='It takes %R seconds to complete this task...'
time {
    #command block that takes time to complete...
    #........
 }

Here's what the reference says about TIMEFORMAT:

The value of this parameter is used as a format string specifying how the timing information for pipelines prefixed with the time reserved word should be displayed. The ‘%’ character introduces an escape sequence that is expanded to a time value or other information. The escape sequences and their meanings are as follows; the braces denote optional portions.

%%

    A literal ‘%’.
%[p][l]R

    The elapsed time in seconds.
%[p][l]U

    The number of CPU seconds spent in user mode.
%[p][l]S

    The number of CPU seconds spent in system mode.
%P

    The CPU percentage, computed as (%U + %S) / %R. 

The optional p is a digit specifying the precision, the number of fractional digits after a decimal point. A value of 0 causes no decimal point or fraction to be output. At most three places after the decimal point may be specified; values of p greater than 3 are changed to 3. If p is not specified, the value 3 is used.

The optional l specifies a longer format, including minutes, of the form MMmSS.FFs. The value of p determines whether or not the fraction is included.

If this variable is not set, Bash acts as if it had the value

$'\nreal\t%3lR\nuser\t%3lU\nsys\t%3lS'

If the value is null, no timing information is displayed. A trailing newline is added when the format string is displayed.

Answer 5

For larger numbers we may want to print in a more readable format. The example below does same as other but also prints in "human" format:

secs_to_human() {
    if [[ -z ${1} || ${1} -lt 60 ]] ;then
        min=0 ; secs="${1}"
    else
        time_mins=$(echo "scale=2; ${1}/60" | bc)
        min=$(echo ${time_mins} | cut -d'.' -f1)
        secs="0.$(echo ${time_mins} | cut -d'.' -f2)"
        secs=$(echo ${secs}*60|bc|awk '{print int($1+0.5)}')
    fi
    echo "Time Elapsed : ${min} minutes and ${secs} seconds."
}

Simple testing:

secs_to_human "300"
secs_to_human "305"
secs_to_human "59"
secs_to_human "60"
secs_to_human "660"
secs_to_human "3000"

Output:

Time Elapsed : 5 minutes and 0 seconds.
Time Elapsed : 5 minutes and 5 seconds.
Time Elapsed : 0 minutes and 59 seconds.
Time Elapsed : 1 minutes and 0 seconds.
Time Elapsed : 11 minutes and 0 seconds.
Time Elapsed : 50 minutes and 0 seconds.

To use in a script as described in other posts (capture start point then call the function with the finish time:

start=$(date +%s)
# << performs some task here >>
secs_to_human "$(($(date +%s) - ${start}))"

Answer 6

Try the following code:

start=$(date +'%s') && sleep 5 && echo "It took $(($(date +'%s') - $start)) seconds"

Answer 7

This is a one-liner alternative to Mike Q's function:

secs_to_human() {
    echo "$(( ${1} / 3600 ))h $(( (${1} / 60) % 60 ))m $(( ${1} % 60 ))s"
}

Answer 8

try using time with the elapsed seconds option:

/usr/bin/time -f%e sleep 1 under bash.

or \time -f%e sleep 1 in interactive bash.

see the time man page:

Users of the bash shell need to use an explicit path in order to run the external time command and not the shell builtin variant. On system where time is installed in /usr/bin, the first example would become /usr/bin/time wc /etc/hosts

and

FORMATTING THE OUTPUT
...
    %      A literal '%'.
    e      Elapsed  real  (wall  clock) time used by the process, in
                 seconds.

Answer 9

start=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S);
for x in {1..5};
do echo $x;
sleep 1; done;
end=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S);
elapsed=$(($end-$start));
ftime=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#end}-${#elapsed}));i++));
        do echo -n "-";
        done;
        echo ${elapsed});
echo -e "Start  : ${start}\nStop   : ${end}\nElapsed: ${ftime}"

Start  : 20171108005304
Stop   : 20171108005310
Elapsed: -------------6

Answer 10

    #!/bin/bash

    time_elapsed(){
    appstop=$1; appstart=$2

    ss_strt=${appstart:12:2} ;ss_stop=${appstop:12:2}
    mm_strt=${appstart:10:2} ;mm_stop=${appstop:10:2}
     hh_strt=${appstart:8:2} ; hh_stop=${appstop:8:2}
     dd_strt=${appstart:6:2} ; dd_stop=${appstop:6:2}
     mh_strt=${appstart:4:2} ; mh_stop=${appstop:4:2}
     yy_strt=${appstart:0:4} ; yy_stop=${appstop:0:4}

    if [ "${ss_stop}" -lt "${ss_strt}" ]; then ss_stop=$((ss_stop+60)); mm_stop=$((mm_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${mm_stop}" -lt "0" ]; then mm_stop=$((mm_stop+60)); hh_stop=$((hh_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${mm_stop}" -lt "${mm_strt}" ]; then mm_stop=$((mm_stop+60)); hh_stop=$((hh_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${hh_stop}" -lt "0" ]; then hh_stop=$((hh_stop+24)); dd_stop=$((dd_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${hh_stop}" -lt "${hh_strt}" ]; then hh_stop=$((hh_stop+24)); dd_stop=$((dd_stop-1)); fi

    if [ "${dd_stop}" -lt "0" ]; then dd_stop=$((dd_stop+$(mh_days $mh_stop $yy_stop))); mh_stop=$((mh_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${dd_stop}" -lt "${dd_strt}" ]; then dd_stop=$((dd_stop+$(mh_days $mh_stop $yy_stop))); mh_stop=$((mh_stop-1)); fi

    if [ "${mh_stop}" -lt "0" ]; then mh_stop=$((mh_stop+12)); yy_stop=$((yy_stop-1)); fi
    if [ "${mh_stop}" -lt "${mh_strt}" ]; then mh_stop=$((mh_stop+12)); yy_stop=$((yy_stop-1)); fi

    ss_espd=$((10#${ss_stop}-10#${ss_strt})); if [ "${#ss_espd}" -le "1" ]; then ss_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#ss_stop}-${#ss_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${ss_espd}); fi
    mm_espd=$((10#${mm_stop}-10#${mm_strt})); if [ "${#mm_espd}" -le "1" ]; then mm_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#mm_stop}-${#mm_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${mm_espd}); fi
    hh_espd=$((10#${hh_stop}-10#${hh_strt})); if [ "${#hh_espd}" -le "1" ]; then hh_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#hh_stop}-${#hh_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${hh_espd}); fi
    dd_espd=$((10#${dd_stop}-10#${dd_strt})); if [ "${#dd_espd}" -le "1" ]; then dd_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#dd_stop}-${#dd_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${dd_espd}); fi
    mh_espd=$((10#${mh_stop}-10#${mh_strt})); if [ "${#mh_espd}" -le "1" ]; then mh_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#mh_stop}-${#mh_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${mh_espd}); fi
    yy_espd=$((10#${yy_stop}-10#${yy_strt})); if [ "${#yy_espd}" -le "1" ]; then yy_espd=$(for((i=1;i<=$((${#yy_stop}-${#yy_espd}));i++)); do echo -n "0"; done; echo ${yy_espd}); fi

    echo -e "${yy_espd}-${mh_espd}-${dd_espd} ${hh_espd}:${mm_espd}:${ss_espd}"
    #return $(echo -e "${yy_espd}-${mh_espd}-${dd_espd} ${hh_espd}:${mm_espd}:${ss_espd}")
    }

    mh_days(){
    mh_stop=$1; yy_stop=$2; #also checks if it's leap year or not

    case $mh_stop in
     [1,3,5,7,8,10,12]) mh_stop=31
     ;;
     2) (( !(yy_stop % 4) && (yy_stop % 100 || !(yy_stop % 400) ) )) && mh_stop=29 || mh_stop=28
     ;;
     [4,6,9,11]) mh_stop=30
     ;;
    esac

    return ${mh_stop}
    }

    appstart=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S); read -p "Wait some time, then press nay-key..." key; appstop=$(date +%Y%m%d%H%M%S); elapsed=$(time_elapsed $appstop $appstart); echo -e "Start...: ${appstart:0:4}-${appstart:4:2}-${appstart:6:2} ${appstart:8:2}:${appstart:10:2}:${appstart:12:2}\nStop....: ${appstop:0:4}-${appstop:4:2}-${appstop:6:2} ${appstop:8:2}:${appstop:10:2}:${appstop:12:2}\n$(printf '%0.1s' "="{1..30})\nElapsed.: ${elapsed}"

    exit 0


-------------------------------------------- return
Wait some time, then press nay-key...
Start...: 2017-11-09 03:22:17
Stop....: 2017-11-09 03:22:18
==============================
Elapsed.: 0000-00-00 00:00:01