ConFoo 2025

posix_times

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7, PHP 8)

posix_timesGet process times

Description

posix_times(): array|false

Gets information about the current CPU usage.

Parameters

This function has no parameters.

Return Values

Returns a hash of strings with information about the current process CPU usage. The indices of the hash are:

  • ticks - the number of clock ticks that have elapsed since reboot.
  • utime - user time used by the current process.
  • stime - system time used by the current process.
  • cutime - user time used by current process and children.
  • cstime - system time used by current process and children.
The function returns false on failure.

Examples

Example #1 Example use of posix_times()

<?php

$times
= posix_times();

print_r($times);
?>

The above example will output something similar to:

Array
(
    [ticks] => 25814410
    [utime] => 1
    [stime] => 1
    [cutime] => 0
    [cstime] => 0
)

Notes

Warning

This function isn't reliable to use, it may return negative values for high times.

add a note

User Contributed Notes 4 notes

up
2
murphy at nmc-online dot co dot uk
21 years ago
I am not sure why, and it could just be me but on my FreeBSD system using
$time = posix_times();
$time['ticks'] is an enormous value that bears no relation to the system uptime (I tested by rebooting the system, the number does not change).
I checked my timecounters, they tick every 10.000msec and I did the maths on the returned value and it suggested the machine had been up for over 200 days - it was reformatted about a week ago.
This could be to do with FreeBSD, or *BSD, or just *idiots like me but just check before you use the function.
~
FreeBSD 5.1-R, Apache 2.0.46, PHP4.3.2
up
1
brain at winbot dot co dot uk
20 years ago
doesnt work with freebsd. as stated above the clock ticks at different intervals on different platforms.

for system uptime consider piping the uptime command or similar, depending on if performance is an issue or not.
up
0
not_rich_yet at hotmail dot com
21 years ago
If you want the output to be 'grammatically correct' then try the following code. It will eg print '1 minute' as opposed to '1 minutes', the same goes for days and hours:

Put the following code somewhere in the head of the page code:

<?php
function uptime() {
if (!
$times = posix_times() ) {
return (
"unknown");
} else {
$now = $times['ticks'];
$days = intval($now / (60*60*24*100));
$remainder = $now % (60*60*24*100);
$hours = intval($remainder / (60*60*100));
$remainder = $remainder % (60*60*100);
$minutes = intval($remainder / (60*100));
if (
$days == 1) {$writeDays = "day";} else {$writeDays = "days";}
if (
$hours == 1) {$writeHours = "hour"; } else {$writeHours = "hours";}
if (
$minutes == 1) {$writeMins = "minute";} else {$writeMins = "minutes";}
return (
"$days $writeDays, $hours $writeHours, $minutes $writeMins");
}
}
?>

Then put this bit where you want the info displayed:

<?php
print uptime();
?>

Regards,

nry
up
0
rossz+php at vamos-wentworth dot org
22 years ago
This function will return the system uptime as a human readable string such as "172 days, 18 hours, 15 minutes". I didn't bother to handle singular so the grammar could be a bit off, e.g. 1 hours.

function uptime() {
if (!$times = posix_times()) {
return ("unknown");
} else {
$now = $times['ticks'];
$days = intval($now / (60*60*24*100));
$remainder = $now % (60*60*24*100);
$hours = intval($remainder / (60*60*100));
$remainder = $remainder % (60*60*100);
$minutes = intval($remainder / (60*100));
return ("$days days, $hours hours, $minutes minutes");
}
}
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