Question

Got a little bash script like so:

#!/bin/bash
TIME_CMD='/usr/bin/time -f "%E execution time"'

${TIME_CMD} ls

Only problem: doesn’t work:

/usr/bin/time: cannot run execution: No such file or directory
Command exited with non-zero status 127
"0:00.00

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Try making it…

#!/bin/bash
TIME_CMD='/usr/bin/time -f "%E execution time"'

eval "$TIME_CMD ls"

This will utilize bash to re-parse the command string after it has been constructed, so that the quoted argument will be recognized properly.