The STI library provides simple and cross-platform timing and date-time printing utilities for C.
It includes functions for handling absolute and relative timers, as well as formatting time for printing.

• Absolute Timers: Retrieve current time (since EPOCH) in microseconds or milliseconds.
• Relative Timers: Measure elapsed time and pause execution.
• Printing: Format and print time values with customizable options.

• STI_micros()

  • Returns the current time in microseconds.

• STI_millis()

  • Returns the current time in milliseconds.

• void STI_timer_start(STI_timer_t *timer)

  • Starts a new timer. Pass a STI_timer_t variable to hold the timer value.

• STI_micros_t STI_elapsed_micros(STI_timer_t timer)

  • Returns the elapsed time in microseconds since STI_timer_start was called.

• STI_millis_t STI_elapsed_millis(STI_timer_t timer)

  • Returns the elapsed time in milliseconds since STI_timer_start was called.

• void STI_sleep_millis(STI_millis_t millis)

  • Pauses execution for the specified number of milliseconds.

• Print Options Structs:

  • STI_PO_sign_t
  • STI_PO_date_t
  • STI_PO_hours_minutes_t
  • STI_PO_seconds_t
  • STI_PO_t

  Configure how time should be printed, including options for date, hours, minutes, seconds, and more.

• char *STI_print_micros(char *dest, size_t size, STI_micros_t micros, STI_PO_t *options)

  • Formats and prints microseconds to dest using specified options.

• char *STI_print_millis(char *dest, size_t size, STI_millis_t millis, STI_PO_t *options)

  • Formats and prints milliseconds to dest using specified options.

• void STI_print_options_set_default(STI_PO_t *options)

  • Sets default print options.

#include "sti.h"

int main() {
    // Absolute time
    STI_micros_t start = STI_micros();
    STI_millis_t start_millis = STI_millis();

    // Relative time
    STI_timer_t timer;
    STI_timer_start(&timer);
    // ... code to measure
    STI_micros_t elapsed_us = STI_elapsed_micros(timer);
    STI_millis_t elapsed_ms = STI_elapsed_millis(timer);

    // Sleep
    STI_sleep_millis(1000);

    // Printing the local time
    STI_PO_t options;
    STI_print_options_set_default(&options);
    char buffer[100];
    STI_print_micros(buffer, sizeof(buffer), start, &options);
    // buffer = "+ 2024/08/01 - 19:33:01.123456"

    // customize options to modify the layout
    options.sign.show = false;
    options.seconds.show = false;
    STI_print_micros(buffer, sizeof(buffer), start, &options);
    // buffer = "2024/08/01 - 19:33"
    options.sign.show = true;
    options.date.show = false;
    options.hours_minutes.show = false;
    STI_print_micros(buffer, sizeof(buffer), start, &options);
    // buffer = "+ 01.123456"
    
    return 0;
}

Use CMake.
Copy the whole folder inside your project folder and add these to your CMakeLists.txt

• add_subdirectory(path/to/simple_timing_utility)
• target_link_libraries(your_executable_name STI)

You have, of course to customize "path/to/" and "your_executable_name" to your needs.

Manually copy files STI.c and STI.h inside your project folder sources.
(And configure your compiler to compile and link these).

First, you need gcc, make, cmake and python installed in your system, check it with these 4 commands:

gcc --version
make --version
cmake --version
python --version

Then, in order to launch the tests open a terminal with cwd as the folder of this README.md file.

Then, run python test/run.py.

This will launch cmake, make, the compiler and then it will execute the executable output.

After a few seconds you should see something like this in the last lines of your terminal:

Run: "path/to/simple_timing_utility/test/bin/test" 1722682587622281
-----START-----
Test started.
Absolute timers test: PASS.
Relative timers test: PASS.
Printing test: PASS.
All tests finished successfully.
process finished with return code 0
-----END-----