TS(1)

💅 TS(1) — the ts manual, section 1, bestie edition ✨

okay so welcome to the ts(1) page, part of moreutils, and honestly? she's a little icon. let's get into it 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

ts — timestamp input. that's it, that's the whole vibe. she timestamps your input 🫶

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

ts [-r] [-i | -s] [-m] [format]

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

ts adds a timestamp to the beginning of every single line of input. literally every line. no line left behind 💖

The optional format parameter controls how the timestamp is formatted, exactly as used by strftime(3). The default format is "%b %d %H:%M:%S". and here's the fun part — on top of the regular strftime conversion specifications, you also get "%.S" and "%.s" and "%.T", which are like "%S" and "%s" and "%T" but with subsecond resolution. so you get stuff like "30.00001" and "1301682593.00001" and "1:15:30.00001". obsessed with the precision ngl ⏱️✨

If the -r switch is passed, she flips the whole thing: instead of adding timestamps, she converts the existing timestamps in the input to relative times, like "15m5s ago". many common timestamp formats are supported. but — and this is the important bit — the Time::Duration and Date::Parse perl modules are required for this mode to work. no cap, if you don't have them it's not happening 😭 Also, currently, converting localized dates is not supported.

If both -r and a format are passed, the existing timestamps get converted to the specified format instead. cute, right? 💅

If the -i or -s switch is passed, ts reports incremental timestamps instead of absolute ones. the default format changes to "%H:%M:%S", and "%.S" and "%.s" can be used as well. so:

• with -i, every timestamp is the time elapsed since the last timestamp.
• with -s, it's the time elapsed since the start of the program.

pick your fighter, both slay 🌈

The -m switch makes the system's monotonic clock be used. she's on a different clock now, main character energy ⭐

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🧚 ENVIRONMENT 🧚

The standard TZ environment variable controls what time zone dates are assumed to be in, if a timezone is not specified as part of the date. so if your dates are looking at you funny, check your TZ first 🙈

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

Copyright 2006 by Joey Hess <id@joeyh.name>

Licensed under the GNU GPL.

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and that's the page!! 🍓

fr fr, remember: -r needs those perl modules, and localized dates aren't supported in that mode. don't come for me, I'm just the messenger 💀

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moreutils · 2025-06-30 · that's the version and date bestie, mwah 💜🎀