How can I get the CPU time for a perl system call?

Question

I have a perl script that calls external executables using system(). I would like to measure the CPU seconds taken by these external programs. Ideally, I would like

Answer 1

You've tested the command with bash, but you passed it to sh.

system("time (ls)")

is short for

system("/bin/sh", "-c", "time (ls)")

but you want

system("/bin/bash", "-c", "time (ls)")