High resolution timer with C++ and Linux?

It's been asked before here -- but basically, there is a boost ptime function you can use, or a POSIX clock_gettime() function which can serve basically the same purpose.

For Linux (and BSD) you want to use clock_gettime().

#include <sys/time.h>

int main()
{
   timespec ts;
   // clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &ts); // Works on FreeBSD
   clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts); // Works on Linux
}

See: This answer for more information

Here's a link describing how to do high-resolution timing on Linux and Windows... and no, Don't use RTSC.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160330004242/http://tdistler.com/2010/06/27/high-performance-timing-on-linux-windows

I have nothing but this link: http://www.mjmwired.net/kernel/Documentation/rtc.txt

I'm pretty sure RTC is what you are looking for though.

EDIT

Other answers seem more portable than mine.