std::clock(), threading, and Linux

I had a strange experience with the boost::timer class the other day, since it never elapsed within a certain thread. As it turns out, this was because std::clock() itself doesn't tick but returns the same value over and over again - a value that probably indicates the time the tread was started. The solution is rather simple: I implemented the boost::timer interface based upon boost::xtime from the boost threading library like this:

class XTimer { public: XTimer() { xtime_get(&_start_time, boost::TIME_UTC); } XTimer(const XTimer& other) : _start_time(other._start_time) { } ~XTimer() { } double elapsed() const { boost::xtime now; xtime_get(&now, boost::TIME_UTC); return boost::lexical_cast<double>(now.sec - _start_time.sec); } private: boost::xtime _start_time; };