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1.\" Hey Emacs! This file is -*- nroff -*- source.
2.\"
3.\" This manpage is Copyright (C) 1992 Drew Eckhardt;
4.\" 1993 Michael Haardt, Ian Jackson.
5.\"
6.\" Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
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26.\" Modified Wed Jul 21 19:42:57 1993 by Rik Faith <faith@cs.unc.edu>
27.\" Modified Sun Jul 21 21:25:26 1996 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
28.\" Modified Wed Nov 6 03:46:05 1996 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
29.\"
30.TH ALARM 2 1993-07-21 Linux "Linux Programmer's Manual"
31.SH NAME
32alarm \- set an alarm clock for delivery of a signal
33.SH SYNOPSIS
34.nf
35.B #include <unistd.h>
36.sp
37.BI "unsigned int alarm(unsigned int " seconds );
38.fi
39.SH DESCRIPTION
40.BR alarm " arranges for a " SIGALRM
41signal to be delivered to the process in
42.I seconds
43seconds.
44
45If
46.I seconds
47is zero, no new
48.B alarm
49is scheduled.
50
51In any event any previously set
52.B alarm
53is cancelled.
54.SH "RETURN VALUE"
55.B alarm
56returns the number of seconds remaining until any previously scheduled
57alarm was due to be delivered, or zero if there was no previously
58scheduled alarm.
59.SH NOTES
60.BR alarm " and " setitimer
61share the same timer; calls to one will interfere with use of the
62other.
63.PP
64.B sleep()
65may be implemented using
66.BR SIGALRM ;
67mixing calls to
68.B alarm()
69and
70.B sleep()
71is a bad idea.
72
73Scheduling delays can, as ever, cause the execution of the process to
74be delayed by an arbitrary amount of time.
75.SH "CONFORMING TO"
76SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3
77.SH "SEE ALSO"
78.BR gettimeofday (2),
79.BR pause (2),
80.BR select (2),
81.BR setitimer (2),
82.BR sigaction (2),
83.BR signal (2),
84.BR sleep (3)