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    I didn't want to throw away the output from the command though. So I guess your third code block is closest to what I had in mind. Although I'd write the last one as DIFF=$((END-START)), making use of the arithmetic expressions. :) ... thanks for the answer. +1 Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 20:00
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    @STATUS_ACCESS_DENIED: Bash doesn't do floating point arithmetic, so if you want better than second resolution (.%N in binfalse's code), you either need bc or fancier calculations. Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 21:11
  • @Gilles: I know. As I wrote in my question integers are fine. No need to have a higher resolution than second. But thanks, the date invocation would have to be changed. I had realized that, though. Commented Apr 26, 2011 at 23:25
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    FYI, the date formatting %N doesn't seem to work on Mac OS X, it just returns "N". Ok on Ubuntu. Commented Oct 19, 2015 at 21:24
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    If you find yourself in a situation where there's dc but no bc (probably rare but I just did), you can use DIFF=$(echo "$END $START - p" | dc). Commented Oct 2, 2018 at 12:42