Re: Time error

[Michael Marsh <michael.a.marsh@gmail.com>]

On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 18:13:30 -0800, Beretta <invalid@invalid.org> wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 19:30:13 +0100, in linux.debian.user you wrote:
> >Regardless, "time" on its own should yield something like:
> >
> >$ time
> >real    0m0.000s
> >user    0m0.000s
> >sys     0m0.000s
> >
> <snip>
> 
> It doesn't.
> 
> beretta@chiana:~$ time
> bash: syntax error near unexpected token `time'

>From /usr/share/doc/bash/CHANGES.gz:
---- begin quote ----
This document details the changes between this version, bash-3.0-beta1,
and the previous version, bash-3.0-alpha.

1.  Changes to Bash
[...]
o.  Changed the grammar so that `time' alone on a line times a null command
    rather than being a syntax error.
---- end quote ----

>From the online package listings:
---- begin quote ----
Package bash

    * stable (base): The GNU Bourne Again SHell
      2.05a-11: alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 m68k mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
    * testing (base): The GNU Bourne Again SHell
      2.05b-24: alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 m68k mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
    * unstable (base): The GNU Bourne Again SHell
      3.0-13: alpha arm hppa i386 ia64 m68k mips mipsel powerpc s390 sparc
      3.0-12: hurd-i386
---- end quote ----

Those of us using sid would appear to have a different (and
friendlier) behavior for bash's time builtin.

-- 
Michael A. Marsh
http://www.umiacs.umd.edu/~mmarsh