I use the following statements to time the system time used by a routine: struct rusage ru_start, ru_end; struct timeval stime; getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, &ru_start); call the routine getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, &ru_end); timersub(&ru_end.ru_stime, &ru_start.ru_stime, &stime); Sometimes I find that the value of stime.tv_sec is negative (-1). Can anyone explain the reason for me? Any help is appreciated. -Zhihui To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message