diff --git a/tools/times.sh b/tools/times.sh
index ca0e60bd9..c34e86fbd 100755
--- a/tools/times.sh
+++ b/tools/times.sh
@@ -1,9 +1,9 @@
 #!/bin/bash
 #
-# Simple script to generate times.log that contains timing information for the last 20 revisions
+# Simple script to generate times.log that contains timing information for the last <n> revisions
 # Typically these commands shall be used to get times.txt:
-mkdir -p src
-cp lib/* src/   # fill src/ with some source code
+mkdir -p src  || exit 1
+cp lib/* src/ || exit 2  # fill src/ with some source code
 #NOTE: also try with some files other then from cppcheck!
 
 
@@ -20,10 +20,9 @@ for i in `seq 1 50`; do
     # if build fails, make clean and try again
     make SRCDIR=build CXXFLAGS=-O2 -j4 || make clean ; make SRCDIR=build CXXFLAGS=-O2 -j4
     echo "Run number $i"
-    ./cppcheck -q --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
-    ./cppcheck -q --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
-    ./cppcheck -q --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
-    ./cppcheck -q --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
+    for j in `seq 1 4`; do
+        ./cppcheck --quiet --showtime=summary --enable=all --inconclusive src 2> /dev/null | tee -a times.log
+    done
     grep "Overall" times.log | tail -4 | sed s/s// | awk -v "i=$i" -v "git_head=$git_head"  '{ sum+=$3} END {print "Run " i",  "git_head  "  Average: " sum/4}' | tee -a times.log
     git reset --hard HEAD^1 | tee -a times.log
 done