Boost C++ Libraries

...one of the most highly regarded and expertly designed C++ library projects in the world. — Herb Sutter and Andrei Alexandrescu, C++ Coding Standards

This is the documentation for a snapshot of the develop branch, built from commit b5267c6e8a.

"How long does my C++ code take to run?"

The Boost Timer library answers that question and does so portably, with as little as one #include and one additional line of code.

The Boost Timer library has two distinct sets of components:

If you are new to the library, please go directly to the version 2 CPU timers page.
If you are interested in the original library, now deprecated, read on below.

CPU timers

These version 2 components conform to current Boost practice:

The interfaces and their semantics are the same across all platforms.
The internal implementation uses operating system specific APIs to achieve higher precision and supply functionality not otherwise available.
The headers live in a sub-directory, <boost/timer/...>.
The content is in a sub-namespace, boost::timer.

These version 1 components are deprecated. They date from the earliest days of Boost and do not conform to current Boost practice:

The interfaces are the same across all platforms, but the semantics differ according to platform. Wall-clock time is measured on Windows, while CPU time is measured on POSIX-like systems.
The internal implementation uses only C/C++ standard library functions, so cannot supply desirable precision and functionality.
The headers live in the main Boost header directory.
The content are in namespace boost.

Revised: 07 October 2011

Distributed under the Boost Software License, Version 1.0. See www.boost.org/LICENSE_1_0.txt