gettimeofday(), clock_gettime(), timer_gettime()

gettimeofday(), clock_gettime(), timer_gettime()

[John Richard Moser]

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I'm looking through a few things and noticing some complaints about time
and performance.  Briefly, the following things have come to my attention:

 - gettimeofday() is slow, or so they say, needing several milliseconds
to execute.

 - Apparently clock_gettime() exists, and can get the same information
as gettimeofday(); it gets its stuff in seconds and nanoseconds, which
is a little more precise than gettimeofday()

 - There are also timers that can count down time incrementally


So I have a few simple questions:

 - Is clock_gettime() faster than gettimeofday()? (doubt it)

 - If not, is timer_gettime() faster than gettimeofday() and clock_gettime()

If it turns out clock_gettime() is faster, then wow what the hell?
Otherwise I'm curious on timer_gettime() because it'll be pretty easy to
implement a timer-based clock tracker that adjusts for clock drift (yeah
if I keep timering and adjusting and resetting the timers the overhead
of maintaining the clock in userspace will drift me away from real
gettimeofday() values).

I'm planning out an interval timer based gettimeofday() in userspace as
an object oriented gettimeofday() mimicry; you'd have to pass a
structure to it for a created timer, because otherwise thread safety
would mean mutexes or thread local storage, both of which are slow.

- --
All content of all messages exchanged herein are left in the
Public Domain, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

    Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be
    wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating
    new problems waiting out there.
                                                 -- Eric Steven Raymond

    We will enslave their women, eat their children and rape their
    cattle!
                  -- Bosc, Evil alien overlord from the fifth dimension
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Re: gettimeofday(), clock_gettime(), timer_gettime()

[Andi Kleen]

John Richard Moser <nigelenki@comcast.net> writes:

>  - gettimeofday() is slow, or so they say, needing several milliseconds
> to execute.

It's not generally true, only sometimes. Please don't spread FUD.

-Andi

Re: gettimeofday(), clock_gettime(), timer_gettime()

[John Richard Moser]

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Andi Kleen wrote:
> John Richard Moser <nigelenki@comcast.net> writes:
> 
>>  - gettimeofday() is slow, or so they say, needing several milliseconds
>> to execute.
> 
> It's not generally true, only sometimes. Please don't spread FUD.
> 

http://lwn.net/Articles/192214/

"X is a big offender, apparently because the gettimeofday() call is
still too slow and maintaining time stamps with interval timers is faster."

Or so they say.  I'm not the one spreading FUD; amusingly it takes me
50uS to run gettimeofday().

> -Andi
> 

- --
All content of all messages exchanged herein are left in the
Public Domain, unless otherwise explicitly stated.

    Creative brains are a valuable, limited resource. They shouldn't be
    wasted on re-inventing the wheel when there are so many fascinating
    new problems waiting out there.
                                                 -- Eric Steven Raymond

    We will enslave their women, eat their children and rape their
    cattle!
                  -- Bosc, Evil alien overlord from the fifth dimension
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Re: gettimeofday(), clock_gettime(), timer_gettime()

[john stultz]

On 7/25/06, John Richard Moser <nigelenki@comcast.net> wrote:
> I'm looking through a few things and noticing some complaints about time
> and performance.  Briefly, the following things have come to my attention:
>
>  - gettimeofday() is slow, or so they say, needing several milliseconds
> to execute.

No. At worse its several microseconds (PIT takes about 18us, and its terrible!).
More likely you'll see ~1us using ACPI PM or HPET or ~500-100ns
(depending on your system).  With vsyscall it can get into the sub
100ns range.

thanks
-john