Struct std::time::Instant

1.8.0 · source · []
pub struct Instant(_);
Expand description

A measurement of a monotonically nondecreasing clock. Opaque and useful only with Duration.

Instants are always guaranteed, barring platform bugs, to be no less than any previously measured instant when created, and are often useful for tasks such as measuring benchmarks or timing how long an operation takes.

Note, however, that instants are not guaranteed to be steady. In other words, each tick of the underlying clock might not be the same length (e.g. some seconds may be longer than others). An instant may jump forwards or experience time dilation (slow down or speed up), but it will never go backwards.

Instants are opaque types that can only be compared to one another. There is no method to get “the number of seconds” from an instant. Instead, it only allows measuring the duration between two instants (or comparing two instants).

The size of an Instant struct may vary depending on the target operating system.

Example:

use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
use std::thread::sleep;

fn main() {
   let now = Instant::now();

   // we sleep for 2 seconds
   sleep(Duration::new(2, 0));
   // it prints '2'
   println!("{}", now.elapsed().as_secs());
}
Run

OS-specific behaviors

An Instant is a wrapper around system-specific types and it may behave differently depending on the underlying operating system. For example, the following snippet is fine on Linux but panics on macOS:

use std::time::{Instant, Duration};

let now = Instant::now();
let max_seconds = u64::MAX / 1_000_000_000;
let duration = Duration::new(max_seconds, 0);
println!("{:?}", now + duration);
Run

Underlying System calls

The following system calls are currently being used by now() to find out the current time:

Disclaimer: These system calls might change over time.

Note: mathematical operations like add may panic if the underlying structure cannot represent the new point in time.

Monotonicity

On all platforms Instant will try to use an OS API that guarantees monotonic behavior if available, which is the case for all tier 1 platforms. In practice such guarantees are – under rare circumstances – broken by hardware, virtualization or operating system bugs. To work around these bugs and platforms not offering monotonic clocks duration_since, elapsed and sub saturate to zero. In older Rust versions this lead to a panic instead. checked_duration_since can be used to detect and handle situations where monotonicity is violated, or Instants are subtracted in the wrong order.

This workaround obscures programming errors where earlier and later instants are accidentally swapped. For this reason future rust versions may reintroduce panics.

Implementations

Returns an instant corresponding to “now”.

Examples
use std::time::Instant;

let now = Instant::now();
Run

Returns the amount of time elapsed from another instant to this one, or zero duration if that instant is later than this one.

Panics

Previous rust versions panicked when earlier was later than self. Currently this method saturates. Future versions may reintroduce the panic in some circumstances. See Monotonicity.

Examples
use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
use std::thread::sleep;

let now = Instant::now();
sleep(Duration::new(1, 0));
let new_now = Instant::now();
println!("{:?}", new_now.duration_since(now));
println!("{:?}", now.duration_since(new_now)); // 0ns
Run

Returns the amount of time elapsed from another instant to this one, or None if that instant is later than this one.

Due to monotonicity bugs, even under correct logical ordering of the passed Instants, this method can return None.

Examples
use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
use std::thread::sleep;

let now = Instant::now();
sleep(Duration::new(1, 0));
let new_now = Instant::now();
println!("{:?}", new_now.checked_duration_since(now));
println!("{:?}", now.checked_duration_since(new_now)); // None
Run

Returns the amount of time elapsed from another instant to this one, or zero duration if that instant is later than this one.

Examples
use std::time::{Duration, Instant};
use std::thread::sleep;

let now = Instant::now();
sleep(Duration::new(1, 0));
let new_now = Instant::now();
println!("{:?}", new_now.saturating_duration_since(now));
println!("{:?}", now.saturating_duration_since(new_now)); // 0ns
Run

Returns the amount of time elapsed since this instant was created.

Panics

Previous rust versions panicked when self was earlier than the current time. Currently this method returns a Duration of zero in that case. Future versions may reintroduce the panic. See Monotonicity.

Examples
use std::thread::sleep;
use std::time::{Duration, Instant};

let instant = Instant::now();
let three_secs = Duration::from_secs(3);
sleep(three_secs);
assert!(instant.elapsed() >= three_secs);
Run

Returns Some(t) where t is the time self + duration if t can be represented as Instant (which means it’s inside the bounds of the underlying data structure), None otherwise.

Returns Some(t) where t is the time self - duration if t can be represented as Instant (which means it’s inside the bounds of the underlying data structure), None otherwise.

Trait Implementations

Panics

This function may panic if the resulting point in time cannot be represented by the underlying data structure. See Instant::checked_add for a version without panic.

The resulting type after applying the + operator.
Performs the += operation. Read more
Returns a copy of the value. Read more
Performs copy-assignment from source. Read more
Formats the value using the given formatter. Read more
Feeds this value into the given Hasher. Read more
Feeds a slice of this type into the given Hasher. Read more
This method returns an Ordering between self and other. Read more
Compares and returns the maximum of two values. Read more
Compares and returns the minimum of two values. Read more
Restrict a value to a certain interval. Read more
This method tests for self and other values to be equal, and is used by ==. Read more
This method tests for !=. The default implementation is almost always sufficient, and should not be overridden without very good reason. Read more
This method returns an ordering between self and other values if one exists. Read more
This method tests less than (for self and other) and is used by the < operator. Read more
This method tests less than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the <= operator. Read more
This method tests greater than (for self and other) and is used by the > operator. Read more
This method tests greater than or equal to (for self and other) and is used by the >= operator. Read more
The resulting type after applying the - operator.
Performs the - operation. Read more

Returns the amount of time elapsed from another instant to this one, or zero duration if that instant is later than this one.

Panics

Previous rust versions panicked when other was later than self. Currently this method saturates. Future versions may reintroduce the panic in some circumstances. See Monotonicity.

The resulting type after applying the - operator.
Performs the -= operation. Read more

Auto Trait Implementations

Blanket Implementations

Gets the TypeId of self. Read more
Immutably borrows from an owned value. Read more
Mutably borrows from an owned value. Read more

Returns the argument unchanged.

Calls U::from(self).

That is, this conversion is whatever the implementation of From<T> for U chooses to do.

The resulting type after obtaining ownership.
Creates owned data from borrowed data, usually by cloning. Read more
Uses borrowed data to replace owned data, usually by cloning. Read more
The type returned in the event of a conversion error.
Performs the conversion.
The type returned in the event of a conversion error.
Performs the conversion.