Bug#854422: ITP: multitime -- an to time which runs a command multiple times and gives detailed stats

[Iustin Pop <iustin@debian.org>]

Package: wnpp
Severity: wishlist
Owner: Iustin Pop <iustin@debian.org>

* Package name    : multitime
  Version         : 1.3
  Upstream Author : Laurence Tratt <laurie@tratt.net>
* URL             : http://tratt.net/laurie/src/multitime/
* License         : BSD
  Programming Lang: C
  Description     : a time-like tool which does multiple runs

Unix's time utility is a simple and often effective way of measuring
how long a command takes to run ("wall time"). Unfortunately, running
a command once can give misleading timings: the process may create a
cache on its first execution, running faster subsequently; other
processes may cause the command to be starved of CPU or IO time;
etc. It is common to see people run time several times and take
whichever values they feel most comfortable with. Inevitably, this
causes problems.

multitime is, in essence, a simple extension to time which runs a
command multiple times and prints the timing means, standard
deviations, mins, medians, and maxes having done so. This can give a
much better understanding of the command's performance.