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What is multitime?

yarikoptic/multitime — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2025-12-11

Audience · developerComplexity · 2/5QuietSetup · moderate

In one sentence

A command-line benchmarking tool that runs a command multiple times and reports average, min, max, and variation, unlike the standard Unix time command's single measurement.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Runs commands repeatedly
      Reports timing statistics
      Improves on Unix time
    Tech stack
      C
      Unix
    Use cases
      Benchmark optimizations
      Compare implementations
      Replace time command
    Audience
      Developers
      Performance testers

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Benchmark whether a code optimization actually made a script faster by comparing average run times across multiple executions.

USE CASE 2

Compare two different implementations of a command to see which one performs better on average.

USE CASE 3

Use as a drop-in replacement for the standard time command, with symlink support for backward compatibility.

USE CASE 4

Get statistics like mean, standard deviation, min, median, and max instead of trusting a single timing run.

What is it built with?

CUnix

How does it compare?

yarikoptic/multitime0verflowme/alarm-clock0verflowme/seclists
Language—CSS—
Last pushed2025-12-112022-10-032020-05-03
MaintenanceQuietDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasyeasy
Complexity2/52/51/5
Audiencedevelopervibe coderops devops

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Requires downloading the source and building it with a configure script, like most Unix tools.

License information is not specified in the explanation.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to use multitime to compare the performance of two versions of my shell script.
Prompt 2
Help me install multitime from source using its configure and build process.
Prompt 3
Explain what statistics multitime reports and how to interpret standard deviation when benchmarking a command.
Prompt 4
How do I set up multitime as a symlinked replacement for the standard time command?

Frequently asked questions

What is multitime?

A command-line benchmarking tool that runs a command multiple times and reports average, min, max, and variation, unlike the standard Unix time command's single measurement.

Is multitime actively maintained?

Quiet — no commits in 6-12 months (last push 2025-12-11).

What license does multitime use?

License information is not specified in the explanation.

How hard is multitime to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is multitime for?

Mainly developer.

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