For any script that takes more than just a few seconds to run, it’s always a good idea to track the runtime itself. This is especially useful in the development stage, but it can also be a valuable resource for production scripts that are modified over time. You’d want to know if a recent change doubles your runtime, so maybe you can look for an alternative method. Here’s how:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w# This variable holds the current time #local $now = time;# Script processing goes here #sleep 10;# Calculate total runtime (current time minus start time) #$now = time - $now;# Print runtime #printf("

Total running time: %02d:%02d:%02d

", int($now / 3600), int(($now % 3600) / 60), int($now % 60));exit;

From here, you can keep a watchful eye on your scripts as they exit, or you can log these times to a file, and only look at them when you’re wondering what’s been taking so long. Knowing your runtimes helps to prevent inefficient code, and allows you to calculate larger batches.