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I need to define C API ex. GetTimerCountInNS(void) to get current TimerCount in Nanosecond, so using this API call I can calculate total execution time of some work done in nanosecond. Can someone suggest me what is wrong with my GetTimerCountInNS function as when I am calculating total execution time it shows incorrect execution time however for MilliSecond it shows correct one.
I already checked other query related to same one but I could not found exact answer.As I dont want to write all equation into main code when calculating time in nanosecond.
I need to use custom API to get count in Nanosecond and by getting different of start and stop time count I need to get total execution time.
How to get current timestamp in nanoseconds in linux using c
Calculating Function time in nanoseconds in C code
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <time.h>
#define BILLION 1000000000L;
// This API provides incorrect time in NS duration
uint64_t GetTimerCountInNS(void)
{
struct timespec currenttime;
clock_gettime( CLOCK_REALTIME, ¤ttime);
//I am not sure here how to calculate count in NS
return currenttime.tv_nsec;
}
// This API provides correct time in MS duration
uint64_t GetTimerCountInMS(void)
{
struct timespec currenttime;
clock_gettime( CLOCK_REALTIME, ¤ttime);
return (1000 * currenttime.tv_sec) + ((double)currenttime.tv_nsec / 1e6);
}
int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
struct timespec start, stop;
uint64_t start_ns,end_ns;
uint64_t start_ms,end_ms;
clock_gettime( CLOCK_REALTIME, &start);
start_ms = GetTimerCountInMS();
start_ns = GetTimerCountInNS();
int f = 0;
sleep(3);
clock_gettime( CLOCK_REALTIME, &stop);
end_ms = GetTimerCountInMS();
end_ns = GetTimerCountInNS();
double total_time_sec = ( stop.tv_sec - start.tv_sec ) + (double)( stop.tv_nsec - start.tv_nsec ) / (double)BILLION;
printf( "time in sec \t: %lf\n", total_time_sec );
printf( "time in ms \t: %ld\n", (end_ms - start_ms) );
printf( "time in ns \t: %ld\n", (end_ns - start_ns) );
return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}
Output:
time in sec : 3.000078
time in ms : 3000
time in ns : 76463 // This shows wrong time
A fix:
uint64_t GetTimerCountInNS(void) {
struct timespec currenttime;
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, ¤ttime);
return UINT64_C(1000000000) * currenttime.tv_sec + currenttime.tv_nsec;
}
In the return, a uint64_t constant is used to promote all other operands of the binary arithmetic operators to uint64_t, in addition to converting seconds to nanoseconds.
I'm trying to use 2 different equivalents for UNIX's gettimeofday() function on Windows, using Visual Studio 2013.
I took the first one from here. As the second one, I'm using the _ftime64_s function, as explained here.
They work, but not as I expected. I want to get different values when printing the seconds, or at least the milliseconds, but I get the same value for the printings with gettimeofday() (mytime1 & mytime2) and with _ftime64_s (mytime3 & mytime4).
However, it worth mentioning that the value of the milliseconds is indeed different between these two functions (that is, the milliseconds value of mytime1/mytime2 is different from mytime3/mytime4).
Here's my code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <Windows.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <sys/timeb.h>
#include <time.h>
#define WIN32_LEAN_AND_MEAN
int gettimeofday(struct timeval * tp, struct timezone * tzp)
{
// Note: some broken versions only have 8 trailing zero's, the correct epoch has 9 trailing zero's
static const uint64_t EPOCH = ((uint64_t)116444736000000000ULL);
SYSTEMTIME system_time;
FILETIME file_time;
uint64_t time;
GetSystemTime(&system_time);
SystemTimeToFileTime(&system_time, &file_time);
time = ((uint64_t)file_time.dwLowDateTime);
time += ((uint64_t)file_time.dwHighDateTime) << 32;
tp->tv_sec = (long)((time - EPOCH) / 10000000L);
tp->tv_usec = (long)(system_time.wMilliseconds * 1000);
return 0;
}
int main()
{
/* working with struct timeval and gettimeofday equivalent */
struct timeval mytime1;
struct timeval mytime2;
gettimeofday(&(mytime1), NULL);
gettimeofday(&(mytime2), NULL);
printf("Seconds: %d\n", (int)(mytime1.tv_sec));
printf("Milliseconds: %d\n", (int)(mytime1.tv_usec));
printf("Seconds: %d\n", (int)(mytime2.tv_sec));
printf("Milliseconds: %d\n", (int)(mytime2.tv_usec));
/* working with _ftime64_s */
struct _timeb mytime3;
struct _timeb mytime4;
_ftime64_s(&mytime3);
_ftime64_s(&mytime4);
printf("Seconds: %d\n", mytime3.time);
printf("Milliseconds: %d\n", mytime3.millitm);
printf("Seconds: %d\n", mytime4.time);
printf("Milliseconds: %d\n", mytime4.millitm);
return (0);
}
I tried other format specifiers (%f, %lu) and castings ((float), (double), (long), (size_t)), but it didn't matter. Suggestions will be welcomed.
QueryPerformanceCounter is used for accurate timing on windows. Usage can be as follows:
uint64_t microseconds()
{
LARGE_INTEGER fq, t;
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&fq);
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t);
return (1000000 * t.QuadPart) / fq.QuadPart;
}
This does not work with any EPOCH as far as I know. For that you need GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime which is only available on Windows 8 and higher.
uint64_t MyGetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime()
{
HMODULE lib = LoadLibraryW(L"kernel32.dll");
if (!lib) return 0;
FARPROC fp = GetProcAddress(lib, "GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime");
ULARGE_INTEGER largeInt;
largeInt.QuadPart = 0;
if (fp)
{
T_GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime* pfn = (T_GetSystemTimePreciseAsFileTime*)fp;
FILETIME fileTime = { 0 };
pfn(&fileTime);
largeInt.HighPart = fileTime.dwHighDateTime;
largeInt.LowPart = fileTime.dwLowDateTime;
}
FreeLibrary(lib);
return largeInt.QuadPart;
}
int main()
{
uint64_t t1 = microseconds();
uint64_t t2 = microseconds();
printf("t1: %llu\n", t1);
printf("t2: %llu\n", t2);
return (0);
}
I would like to measure time in C, and I am having a tough time figuring it out, all I want is something like this:
start a timer
run a method
stop the timer
report the time taken (at least to micro accuracy)
Any help would be appreciated.
(I am compiling in windows using mingw)
High resolution timers that provide a resolution of 1 microsecond are system-specific, so you will have to use different methods to achieve this on different OS platforms. You may be interested in checking out the following article, which implements a cross-platform C++ timer class based on the functions described below:
[Song Ho Ahn - High Resolution Timer][1]
Windows
The Windows API provides extremely high resolution timer functions: QueryPerformanceCounter(), which returns the current elapsed ticks, and QueryPerformanceFrequency(), which returns the number of ticks per second.
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h> // for Windows APIs
int main(void)
{
LARGE_INTEGER frequency; // ticks per second
LARGE_INTEGER t1, t2; // ticks
double elapsedTime;
// get ticks per second
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&frequency);
// start timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t1);
// do something
// ...
// stop timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t2);
// compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
elapsedTime = (t2.QuadPart - t1.QuadPart) * 1000.0 / frequency.QuadPart;
printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}
Linux, Unix, and Mac
For Unix or Linux based system, you can use gettimeofday(). This function is declared in "sys/time.h".
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h> // for gettimeofday()
int main(void)
{
struct timeval t1, t2;
double elapsedTime;
// start timer
gettimeofday(&t1, NULL);
// do something
// ...
// stop timer
gettimeofday(&t2, NULL);
// compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
elapsedTime = (t2.tv_sec - t1.tv_sec) * 1000.0; // sec to ms
elapsedTime += (t2.tv_usec - t1.tv_usec) / 1000.0; // us to ms
printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}
On Linux you can use clock_gettime():
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &start); // get initial time-stamp
// ... do stuff ... //
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &end); // get final time-stamp
double t_ns = (double)(end.tv_sec - start.tv_sec) * 1.0e9 +
(double)(end.tv_nsec - start.tv_nsec);
// subtract time-stamps and
// multiply to get elapsed
// time in ns
Here's a header file I wrote to do some simple performance profiling (using manual timers):
#ifndef __ZENTIMER_H__
#define __ZENTIMER_H__
#ifdef ENABLE_ZENTIMER
#include <stdio.h>
#ifdef WIN32
#include <windows.h>
#else
#include <sys/time.h>
#endif
#ifdef HAVE_STDINT_H
#include <stdint.h>
#elif HAVE_INTTYPES_H
#include <inttypes.h>
#else
typedef unsigned char uint8_t;
typedef unsigned long int uint32_t;
typedef unsigned long long uint64_t;
#endif
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#pragma }
#endif /* __cplusplus */
#define ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC 1000000
/* ztime_t represents usec */
typedef uint64_t ztime_t;
#ifdef WIN32
static uint64_t ztimer_freq = 0;
#endif
static void
ztime (ztime_t *ztimep)
{
#ifdef WIN32
QueryPerformanceCounter ((LARGE_INTEGER *) ztimep);
#else
struct timeval tv;
gettimeofday (&tv, NULL);
*ztimep = ((uint64_t) tv.tv_sec * ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC) + tv.tv_usec;
#endif
}
enum {
ZTIMER_INACTIVE = 0,
ZTIMER_ACTIVE = (1 << 0),
ZTIMER_PAUSED = (1 << 1),
};
typedef struct {
ztime_t start;
ztime_t stop;
int state;
} ztimer_t;
#define ZTIMER_INITIALIZER { 0, 0, 0 }
/* default timer */
static ztimer_t __ztimer = ZTIMER_INITIALIZER;
static void
ZenTimerStart (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztimer->state = ZTIMER_ACTIVE;
ztime (&ztimer->start);
}
static void
ZenTimerStop (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztime (&ztimer->stop);
ztimer->state = ZTIMER_INACTIVE;
}
static void
ZenTimerPause (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztime (&ztimer->stop);
ztimer->state |= ZTIMER_PAUSED;
}
static void
ZenTimerResume (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztime_t now, delta;
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
/* unpause */
ztimer->state &= ~ZTIMER_PAUSED;
ztime (&now);
/* calculate time since paused */
delta = now - ztimer->stop;
/* adjust start time to account for time elapsed since paused */
ztimer->start += delta;
}
static double
ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer_t *ztimer, uint64_t *usec)
{
#ifdef WIN32
static uint64_t freq = 0;
ztime_t delta, stop;
if (freq == 0)
QueryPerformanceFrequency ((LARGE_INTEGER *) &freq);
#else
#define freq ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC
ztime_t delta, stop;
#endif
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
if (ztimer->state != ZTIMER_ACTIVE)
stop = ztimer->stop;
else
ztime (&stop);
delta = stop - ztimer->start;
if (usec != NULL)
*usec = (uint64_t) (delta * ((double) ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC / (double) freq));
return (double) delta / (double) freq;
}
static void
ZenTimerReport (ztimer_t *ztimer, const char *oper)
{
fprintf (stderr, "ZenTimer: %s took %.6f seconds\n", oper, ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer, NULL));
}
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif /* __cplusplus */
#else /* ! ENABLE_ZENTIMER */
#define ZenTimerStart(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerStop(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerPause(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerResume(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerElapsed(ztimerp, usec)
#define ZenTimerReport(ztimerp, oper)
#endif /* ENABLE_ZENTIMER */
#endif /* __ZENTIMER_H__ */
The ztime() function is the main logic you need — it gets the current time and stores it in a 64bit uint measured in microseconds. You can then later do simple math to find out the elapsed time.
The ZenTimer*() functions are just helper functions to take a pointer to a simple timer struct, ztimer_t, which records the start time and the end time. The ZenTimerPause()/ZenTimerResume() functions allow you to, well, pause and resume the timer in case you want to print out some debugging information that you don't want timed, for example.
You can find a copy of the original header file at http://www.gnome.org/~fejj/code/zentimer.h in the off chance that I messed up the html escaping of <'s or something. It's licensed under MIT/X11 so feel free to copy it into any project you do.
The following is a group of versatile C functions for timer management based on the gettimeofday() system call. All the timer properties are contained in a single ticktimer struct - the interval you want, the total running time since the timer initialization, a pointer to the desired callback you want to call, the number of times the callback was called. A callback function would look like this:
void your_timer_cb (struct ticktimer *t) {
/* do your stuff here */
}
To initialize and start a timer, call ticktimer_init(your_timer, interval, TICKTIMER_RUN, your_timer_cb, 0).
In the main loop of your program call ticktimer_tick(your_timer) and it will decide whether the appropriate amount of time has passed to invoke the callback.
To stop a timer, just call ticktimer_ctl(your_timer, TICKTIMER_STOP).
ticktimer.h:
#ifndef __TICKTIMER_H
#define __TICKTIMER_H
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#define TICKTIMER_STOP 0x00
#define TICKTIMER_UNCOMPENSATE 0x00
#define TICKTIMER_RUN 0x01
#define TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE 0x02
struct ticktimer {
u_int64_t tm_tick_interval;
u_int64_t tm_last_ticked;
u_int64_t tm_total;
unsigned ticks_total;
void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *);
unsigned char flags;
int id;
};
void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *, u_int64_t, unsigned char, void (*)(struct ticktimer *), int);
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *, unsigned char);
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void);
void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_tick_all (void);
#endif
ticktimer.c:
#include "ticktimer.h"
#define TIMER_COUNT 100
static struct ticktimer timers[TIMER_COUNT];
static struct timeval tm;
/*!
#brief
Initializes/sets the ticktimer struct.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#param interval
Ticking interval in microseconds.
#param flags
Flag bitmask. Use TICKTIMER_RUN | TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE
to start a compensating timer; TICKTIMER_RUN to start
a normal uncompensating timer.
#param tick
Ticking callback function.
#param id
Timer ID. Useful if you want to distinguish different
timers within the same callback function.
*/
void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *timer, u_int64_t interval, unsigned char flags, void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *), int id) {
gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
timer->tm_tick_interval = interval;
timer->tm_last_ticked = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;
timer->tm_total = 0;
timer->ticks_total = 0;
timer->tick = tick;
timer->flags = flags;
timer->id = id;
}
/*!
#brief
Checks the status of a ticktimer and performs a tick(s) if
necessary.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#return
The number of times the timer was ticked.
*/
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *timer) {
register typeof(timer->tm_tick_interval) now;
register typeof(timer->ticks_total) nticks, i;
if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_RUN) {
gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
now = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;
if (now >= timer->tm_last_ticked + timer->tm_tick_interval) {
timer->tm_total += now - timer->tm_last_ticked;
if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE) {
nticks = (now - timer->tm_last_ticked) / timer->tm_tick_interval;
timer->tm_last_ticked = now - ((now - timer->tm_last_ticked) % timer->tm_tick_interval);
for (i = 0; i < nticks; i++) {
timer->tick(timer);
timer->ticks_total++;
if (timer->tick == NULL) {
break;
}
}
return nticks;
} else {
timer->tm_last_ticked = now;
timer->tick(timer);
timer->ticks_total++;
return 1;
}
}
}
return 0;
}
/*!
#brief
Controls the behaviour of a ticktimer.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#param flags
Flag bitmask.
*/
inline void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *timer, unsigned char flags) {
timer->flags = flags;
}
/*!
#brief
Allocates a ticktimer struct from an internal
statically allocated list.
#return
Pointer to the newly allocated ticktimer struct
or NULL when no more space is available.
*/
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void) {
register int i;
for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
if (timers[i].tick == NULL) {
return timers + i;
}
}
return NULL;
}
/*!
#brief
Marks a previously allocated ticktimer struct as free.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct, usually returned by
ticktimer_alloc().
*/
inline void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *timer) {
timer->tick = NULL;
}
/*!
#brief
Checks the status of all allocated timers from the
internal list and performs ticks where necessary.
#note
Should be called in the main loop.
*/
inline void ticktimer_tick_all (void) {
register int i;
for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
if (timers[i].tick != NULL) {
ticktimer_tick(timers + i);
}
}
}
Using the time.h library, try something like this:
long start_time, end_time, elapsed;
start_time = clock();
// Do something
end_time = clock();
elapsed = (end_time - start_time) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC * 1000;
If your Linux system supports it, clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC) should be a high resolution timer that is unaffected by system date changes (e.g. NTP daemons).
Great answers for GNU environments above and below...
But... what if you're not running on an OS? (or a PC for that matter, or you need to time your timer interrupts themselves?) Here's a solution that uses the x86 CPU timestamp counter directly... Not because this is good practice, or should be done, ever, when running under an OS...
Caveat: Only works on x86, with frequency scaling disabled.
Under Linux, only works on non-tickless kernels
rdtsc.c:
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
typedef unsigned long long int64;
static __inline__ int64 getticks(void)
{
unsigned a, d;
asm volatile("rdtsc" : "=a" (a), "=d" (d));
return (((int64)a) | (((int64)d) << 32));
}
int main(){
int64 tick,tick1;
unsigned time=0,mt;
// mt is the divisor to give microseconds
FILE *pf;
int i,r,l,n=0;
char s[100];
// time how long it takes to get the divisors, as a test
tick = getticks();
// get the divisors - todo: for max performance this can
// output a new binary or library with these values hardcoded
// for the relevant CPU - if you use the equivalent assembler for
// that CPU
pf = fopen("/proc/cpuinfo","r");
do {
r=fscanf(pf,"%s",&s[0]);
if (r<0) {
n=5; break;
} else if (n==0) {
if (strcmp("MHz",s)==0) n=1;
} else if (n==1) {
if (strcmp(":",s)==0) n=2;
} else if (n==2) {
n=3;
};
} while (n<3);
fclose(pf);
s[9]=(char)0;
strcpy(&s[4],&s[5]);
mt=atoi(s);
printf("#define mt %u // (%s Hz) hardcode this for your a CPU-specific binary ;-)\n",mt,s);
tick1 = getticks();
time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
printf("%u ms\n",time);
// time the duration of sleep(1) - plus overheads ;-)
tick = getticks();
sleep(1);
tick1 = getticks();
time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
printf("%u ms\n",time);
return 0;
}
compile and run with
$ gcc rdtsc.c -o rdtsc && ./rdtsc
It reads the divisor for your CPU from /proc/cpuinfo and shows how long it took to read that in microseconds, as well as how long it takes to execute sleep(1) in microseconds... Assuming the Mhz rating in /proc/cpuinfo always contains 3 decimal places :-o
Is there a way to get milliseconds precision, accurate (at least within a few ms) times in C using a cross-platform approach?
on a POSIX system I can use sys/time.h, but that is not cross-platform.
the stdlib time() function only gives second level precision
I haven't found a cross-platform solution to measuring time in C, per se. However, what I do is use almost identical functions for Unix and Windows. I created this gist because I always have to re-look this up every time. In short:
Unix
#include <time.h>
long diff_micro(struct timespec *start, struct timespec *end)
{
/* us */
return ((end->tv_sec * (1000000)) + (end->tv_nsec / 1000)) -
((start->tv_sec * 1000000) + (start->tv_nsec / 1000));
}
long diff_milli(struct timespec *start, struct timespec *end)
{
/* ms */
return ((end->tv_sec * 1000) + (end->tv_nsec / 1000000)) -
((start->tv_sec * 1000) + (start->tv_nsec / 1000000));
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
struct timespec start, end;
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &start);
// Activity to be timed
sleep(1000);
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &end);
printf("%ld us\n", diff_micro(&start, &end));
printf("%ld ms\n", diff_milli(&start, &end));
return 0;
}
source for Unix solution
Win32
#include <Windows.h>
long diff_micro(LARGE_INTEGER *start, LARGE_INTEGER *end)
{
LARGE_INTEGER Frequency, elapsed;
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&Frequency);
elapsed.QuadPart = end->QuadPart - start->QuadPart;
elapsed.QuadPart *= 1000000;
elapsed.QuadPart /= Frequency.QuadPart;
return elapsed.QuadPart;
}
long diff_milli(LARGE_INTEGER *start, LARGE_INTEGER *end)
{
LARGE_INTEGER Frequency, elapsed;
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&Frequency);
elapsed.QuadPart = end->QuadPart - start->QuadPart;
elapsed.QuadPart *= 1000;
elapsed.QuadPart /= Frequency.QuadPart;
return elapsed.QuadPart;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
LARGE_INTEGER StartingTime, EndingTime;
QueryPerformanceCounter(&StartingTime);
// Activity to be timed
Sleep(1000);
QueryPerformanceCounter(&EndingTime);
printf("%ld us\n", diff_micro(&StartingTime, &EndingTime));
printf("%ld ms\n", diff_milli(&StartingTime, &EndingTime));
return 0;
}
source used for Win32 solution
You can try something like this:-
#include <time.h>
clock_t uptime = clock() / (CLOCKS_PER_SEC / 1000);
See this Link
The best way is using std::chrono
#include <chrono>
...
auto begin = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
...
auto end = std::chrono::high_resolution_clock::now();
elapsedTime = std::chrono::duration_cast<std::chrono::milliseconds>(end - begin).count();
I would like to measure time in C, and I am having a tough time figuring it out, all I want is something like this:
start a timer
run a method
stop the timer
report the time taken (at least to micro accuracy)
Any help would be appreciated.
(I am compiling in windows using mingw)
High resolution timers that provide a resolution of 1 microsecond are system-specific, so you will have to use different methods to achieve this on different OS platforms. You may be interested in checking out the following article, which implements a cross-platform C++ timer class based on the functions described below:
[Song Ho Ahn - High Resolution Timer][1]
Windows
The Windows API provides extremely high resolution timer functions: QueryPerformanceCounter(), which returns the current elapsed ticks, and QueryPerformanceFrequency(), which returns the number of ticks per second.
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <windows.h> // for Windows APIs
int main(void)
{
LARGE_INTEGER frequency; // ticks per second
LARGE_INTEGER t1, t2; // ticks
double elapsedTime;
// get ticks per second
QueryPerformanceFrequency(&frequency);
// start timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t1);
// do something
// ...
// stop timer
QueryPerformanceCounter(&t2);
// compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
elapsedTime = (t2.QuadPart - t1.QuadPart) * 1000.0 / frequency.QuadPart;
printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}
Linux, Unix, and Mac
For Unix or Linux based system, you can use gettimeofday(). This function is declared in "sys/time.h".
Example:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/time.h> // for gettimeofday()
int main(void)
{
struct timeval t1, t2;
double elapsedTime;
// start timer
gettimeofday(&t1, NULL);
// do something
// ...
// stop timer
gettimeofday(&t2, NULL);
// compute and print the elapsed time in millisec
elapsedTime = (t2.tv_sec - t1.tv_sec) * 1000.0; // sec to ms
elapsedTime += (t2.tv_usec - t1.tv_usec) / 1000.0; // us to ms
printf("%f ms.\n", elapsedTime);
}
On Linux you can use clock_gettime():
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &start); // get initial time-stamp
// ... do stuff ... //
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &end); // get final time-stamp
double t_ns = (double)(end.tv_sec - start.tv_sec) * 1.0e9 +
(double)(end.tv_nsec - start.tv_nsec);
// subtract time-stamps and
// multiply to get elapsed
// time in ns
Here's a header file I wrote to do some simple performance profiling (using manual timers):
#ifndef __ZENTIMER_H__
#define __ZENTIMER_H__
#ifdef ENABLE_ZENTIMER
#include <stdio.h>
#ifdef WIN32
#include <windows.h>
#else
#include <sys/time.h>
#endif
#ifdef HAVE_STDINT_H
#include <stdint.h>
#elif HAVE_INTTYPES_H
#include <inttypes.h>
#else
typedef unsigned char uint8_t;
typedef unsigned long int uint32_t;
typedef unsigned long long uint64_t;
#endif
#ifdef __cplusplus
extern "C" {
#pragma }
#endif /* __cplusplus */
#define ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC 1000000
/* ztime_t represents usec */
typedef uint64_t ztime_t;
#ifdef WIN32
static uint64_t ztimer_freq = 0;
#endif
static void
ztime (ztime_t *ztimep)
{
#ifdef WIN32
QueryPerformanceCounter ((LARGE_INTEGER *) ztimep);
#else
struct timeval tv;
gettimeofday (&tv, NULL);
*ztimep = ((uint64_t) tv.tv_sec * ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC) + tv.tv_usec;
#endif
}
enum {
ZTIMER_INACTIVE = 0,
ZTIMER_ACTIVE = (1 << 0),
ZTIMER_PAUSED = (1 << 1),
};
typedef struct {
ztime_t start;
ztime_t stop;
int state;
} ztimer_t;
#define ZTIMER_INITIALIZER { 0, 0, 0 }
/* default timer */
static ztimer_t __ztimer = ZTIMER_INITIALIZER;
static void
ZenTimerStart (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztimer->state = ZTIMER_ACTIVE;
ztime (&ztimer->start);
}
static void
ZenTimerStop (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztime (&ztimer->stop);
ztimer->state = ZTIMER_INACTIVE;
}
static void
ZenTimerPause (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
ztime (&ztimer->stop);
ztimer->state |= ZTIMER_PAUSED;
}
static void
ZenTimerResume (ztimer_t *ztimer)
{
ztime_t now, delta;
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
/* unpause */
ztimer->state &= ~ZTIMER_PAUSED;
ztime (&now);
/* calculate time since paused */
delta = now - ztimer->stop;
/* adjust start time to account for time elapsed since paused */
ztimer->start += delta;
}
static double
ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer_t *ztimer, uint64_t *usec)
{
#ifdef WIN32
static uint64_t freq = 0;
ztime_t delta, stop;
if (freq == 0)
QueryPerformanceFrequency ((LARGE_INTEGER *) &freq);
#else
#define freq ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC
ztime_t delta, stop;
#endif
ztimer = ztimer ? ztimer : &__ztimer;
if (ztimer->state != ZTIMER_ACTIVE)
stop = ztimer->stop;
else
ztime (&stop);
delta = stop - ztimer->start;
if (usec != NULL)
*usec = (uint64_t) (delta * ((double) ZTIME_USEC_PER_SEC / (double) freq));
return (double) delta / (double) freq;
}
static void
ZenTimerReport (ztimer_t *ztimer, const char *oper)
{
fprintf (stderr, "ZenTimer: %s took %.6f seconds\n", oper, ZenTimerElapsed (ztimer, NULL));
}
#ifdef __cplusplus
}
#endif /* __cplusplus */
#else /* ! ENABLE_ZENTIMER */
#define ZenTimerStart(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerStop(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerPause(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerResume(ztimerp)
#define ZenTimerElapsed(ztimerp, usec)
#define ZenTimerReport(ztimerp, oper)
#endif /* ENABLE_ZENTIMER */
#endif /* __ZENTIMER_H__ */
The ztime() function is the main logic you need — it gets the current time and stores it in a 64bit uint measured in microseconds. You can then later do simple math to find out the elapsed time.
The ZenTimer*() functions are just helper functions to take a pointer to a simple timer struct, ztimer_t, which records the start time and the end time. The ZenTimerPause()/ZenTimerResume() functions allow you to, well, pause and resume the timer in case you want to print out some debugging information that you don't want timed, for example.
You can find a copy of the original header file at http://www.gnome.org/~fejj/code/zentimer.h in the off chance that I messed up the html escaping of <'s or something. It's licensed under MIT/X11 so feel free to copy it into any project you do.
The following is a group of versatile C functions for timer management based on the gettimeofday() system call. All the timer properties are contained in a single ticktimer struct - the interval you want, the total running time since the timer initialization, a pointer to the desired callback you want to call, the number of times the callback was called. A callback function would look like this:
void your_timer_cb (struct ticktimer *t) {
/* do your stuff here */
}
To initialize and start a timer, call ticktimer_init(your_timer, interval, TICKTIMER_RUN, your_timer_cb, 0).
In the main loop of your program call ticktimer_tick(your_timer) and it will decide whether the appropriate amount of time has passed to invoke the callback.
To stop a timer, just call ticktimer_ctl(your_timer, TICKTIMER_STOP).
ticktimer.h:
#ifndef __TICKTIMER_H
#define __TICKTIMER_H
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#define TICKTIMER_STOP 0x00
#define TICKTIMER_UNCOMPENSATE 0x00
#define TICKTIMER_RUN 0x01
#define TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE 0x02
struct ticktimer {
u_int64_t tm_tick_interval;
u_int64_t tm_last_ticked;
u_int64_t tm_total;
unsigned ticks_total;
void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *);
unsigned char flags;
int id;
};
void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *, u_int64_t, unsigned char, void (*)(struct ticktimer *), int);
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *, unsigned char);
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void);
void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *);
void ticktimer_tick_all (void);
#endif
ticktimer.c:
#include "ticktimer.h"
#define TIMER_COUNT 100
static struct ticktimer timers[TIMER_COUNT];
static struct timeval tm;
/*!
#brief
Initializes/sets the ticktimer struct.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#param interval
Ticking interval in microseconds.
#param flags
Flag bitmask. Use TICKTIMER_RUN | TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE
to start a compensating timer; TICKTIMER_RUN to start
a normal uncompensating timer.
#param tick
Ticking callback function.
#param id
Timer ID. Useful if you want to distinguish different
timers within the same callback function.
*/
void ticktimer_init (struct ticktimer *timer, u_int64_t interval, unsigned char flags, void (*tick)(struct ticktimer *), int id) {
gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
timer->tm_tick_interval = interval;
timer->tm_last_ticked = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;
timer->tm_total = 0;
timer->ticks_total = 0;
timer->tick = tick;
timer->flags = flags;
timer->id = id;
}
/*!
#brief
Checks the status of a ticktimer and performs a tick(s) if
necessary.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#return
The number of times the timer was ticked.
*/
unsigned ticktimer_tick (struct ticktimer *timer) {
register typeof(timer->tm_tick_interval) now;
register typeof(timer->ticks_total) nticks, i;
if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_RUN) {
gettimeofday(&tm, NULL);
now = tm.tv_sec * 1000000 + tm.tv_usec;
if (now >= timer->tm_last_ticked + timer->tm_tick_interval) {
timer->tm_total += now - timer->tm_last_ticked;
if (timer->flags & TICKTIMER_COMPENSATE) {
nticks = (now - timer->tm_last_ticked) / timer->tm_tick_interval;
timer->tm_last_ticked = now - ((now - timer->tm_last_ticked) % timer->tm_tick_interval);
for (i = 0; i < nticks; i++) {
timer->tick(timer);
timer->ticks_total++;
if (timer->tick == NULL) {
break;
}
}
return nticks;
} else {
timer->tm_last_ticked = now;
timer->tick(timer);
timer->ticks_total++;
return 1;
}
}
}
return 0;
}
/*!
#brief
Controls the behaviour of a ticktimer.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct.
#param flags
Flag bitmask.
*/
inline void ticktimer_ctl (struct ticktimer *timer, unsigned char flags) {
timer->flags = flags;
}
/*!
#brief
Allocates a ticktimer struct from an internal
statically allocated list.
#return
Pointer to the newly allocated ticktimer struct
or NULL when no more space is available.
*/
struct ticktimer *ticktimer_alloc (void) {
register int i;
for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
if (timers[i].tick == NULL) {
return timers + i;
}
}
return NULL;
}
/*!
#brief
Marks a previously allocated ticktimer struct as free.
#param timer
Pointer to ticktimer struct, usually returned by
ticktimer_alloc().
*/
inline void ticktimer_free (struct ticktimer *timer) {
timer->tick = NULL;
}
/*!
#brief
Checks the status of all allocated timers from the
internal list and performs ticks where necessary.
#note
Should be called in the main loop.
*/
inline void ticktimer_tick_all (void) {
register int i;
for (i = 0; i < TIMER_COUNT; i++) {
if (timers[i].tick != NULL) {
ticktimer_tick(timers + i);
}
}
}
Using the time.h library, try something like this:
long start_time, end_time, elapsed;
start_time = clock();
// Do something
end_time = clock();
elapsed = (end_time - start_time) / CLOCKS_PER_SEC * 1000;
If your Linux system supports it, clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC) should be a high resolution timer that is unaffected by system date changes (e.g. NTP daemons).
Great answers for GNU environments above and below...
But... what if you're not running on an OS? (or a PC for that matter, or you need to time your timer interrupts themselves?) Here's a solution that uses the x86 CPU timestamp counter directly... Not because this is good practice, or should be done, ever, when running under an OS...
Caveat: Only works on x86, with frequency scaling disabled.
Under Linux, only works on non-tickless kernels
rdtsc.c:
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
typedef unsigned long long int64;
static __inline__ int64 getticks(void)
{
unsigned a, d;
asm volatile("rdtsc" : "=a" (a), "=d" (d));
return (((int64)a) | (((int64)d) << 32));
}
int main(){
int64 tick,tick1;
unsigned time=0,mt;
// mt is the divisor to give microseconds
FILE *pf;
int i,r,l,n=0;
char s[100];
// time how long it takes to get the divisors, as a test
tick = getticks();
// get the divisors - todo: for max performance this can
// output a new binary or library with these values hardcoded
// for the relevant CPU - if you use the equivalent assembler for
// that CPU
pf = fopen("/proc/cpuinfo","r");
do {
r=fscanf(pf,"%s",&s[0]);
if (r<0) {
n=5; break;
} else if (n==0) {
if (strcmp("MHz",s)==0) n=1;
} else if (n==1) {
if (strcmp(":",s)==0) n=2;
} else if (n==2) {
n=3;
};
} while (n<3);
fclose(pf);
s[9]=(char)0;
strcpy(&s[4],&s[5]);
mt=atoi(s);
printf("#define mt %u // (%s Hz) hardcode this for your a CPU-specific binary ;-)\n",mt,s);
tick1 = getticks();
time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
printf("%u ms\n",time);
// time the duration of sleep(1) - plus overheads ;-)
tick = getticks();
sleep(1);
tick1 = getticks();
time = (unsigned)((tick1-tick)/mt);
printf("%u ms\n",time);
return 0;
}
compile and run with
$ gcc rdtsc.c -o rdtsc && ./rdtsc
It reads the divisor for your CPU from /proc/cpuinfo and shows how long it took to read that in microseconds, as well as how long it takes to execute sleep(1) in microseconds... Assuming the Mhz rating in /proc/cpuinfo always contains 3 decimal places :-o