# Install multitime with Homebrew, Nix, apt

Time command execution over multiple executions. Version 1.5 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. Also installable with nix: nix profile install nixpkgs#multitime.

## Install

```sh
sudo av install brew:multitime
```

Additional install commands:

### macOS

- Homebrew (100%):

```sh
brew install multitime
```

  Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata

### Linux

- Nix (92%):

```sh
nix profile install nixpkgs#multitime
```

  Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/mu/multitime/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1

- Ubuntu apt (92%):

```sh
sudo apt install multitime
```

  Evidence: Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: multitime from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz

## Package facts

- **Package key:** brew:multitime
- **Package manager:** Homebrew
- **Version:** 1.5
- **Source summary:** Time command execution over multiple executions
- **Homepage:** <https://tratt.net/laurie/src/multitime/>
- **Repository:** <https://github.com/ltratt/multitime>
- **Generated:** 2026-08-03T19:37:03+00:00

## Executables

- multitime (alias)

## Install behavior

- Bottle: not available

## Freshness

- Page generated: 2026-08-03
- Package-manager version: 1.5
## Project history and usage

multitime is Laurence Tratt's small benchmarking utility that extends Unix `time` by running a command repeatedly and reporting summary statistics. Tratt's overview starts from a common problem with one-shot timing: caches, background load, CPU and I/O scheduling, and user cherry-picking can make a single `time` result misleading. multitime answers that with repeated runs and output that includes means, standard deviations, minimums, medians, and maximums.

### Project history

The tool is intentionally narrow. It times external commands rather than becoming a language-specific profiler, and it includes options for controlling standard input and output across runs. Its man page also documents batch files for comparing different commands by randomly interleaving executions, which spreads machine noise more evenly across alternatives. That makes it a useful command-line companion for compiler, shell, and systems experiments where the benchmark is already expressible as a command.

### How it is used

Its package-manager niche is a lightweight developer and research tool: smaller than benchmarking harnesses, more statistically honest than running `time` by hand several times, and easy to install through Homebrew, Nix, and Debian/Ubuntu-style packages.

### Sources

- <https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/multitime>
- <https://github.com/ltratt/multitime>
- <https://tratt.net/laurie/src/multitime/>
- <https://tratt.net/laurie/src/multitime/multitime.1.html>


## Security Notes

narrow executable package without higher-risk signals.

- **Geiger risk:** green / low
- narrow executable package without higher-risk signals

## Other Package-Manager Records

- Nix - multitime: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/mu/multitime/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1
- Ubuntu apt - multitime - 1.4-2: normalized package name match | Ubuntu 24.04 LTS package indexes: multitime from https://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/noble/universe/binary-amd64/Packages.gz | time-like tool which does multiple runs | https://tratt.net/laurie/src/multitime/


## Combined YAML source

View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/multitime.yml](https://github.com/mxcl/pkgdb/blob/main/combined/multitime.yml)


## Sources

- pkg.so package database
- Geiger risk classifier
- curated package history
- pkgdb category and tag curation
- external package-manager database matches
- cross-ecosystem install command graph