ualarm(2)

DESCRIPTION

The ualarm() function causes the SIGALRM signal to be generated for the calling process after the number of real-time microseconds specified by the useconds argument has elapsed. When the interval argument is non-zero, repeated timeout notification occurs with a period in microseconds specified by the interval argument. If the notification signal, SIGALRM, is not caught or ignored, the calling process is terminated.

Implementations may place limitations on the granularity of timer values. For each interval timer, if the requested timer value requires a finer granularity than the implementation supports, the actual timer value will be rounded up to the next supported value.

Interactions between ualarm() and either alarm() or sleep() are unspecified.

RETURN VALUE

The ualarm() function returns the number of microseconds remaining from the previous ualarm() call. If no timeouts are pending or if ualarm() has not previously been called, ualarm() returns 0.

ERRORS

No errors are defined.

APPLICATION USAGE

The ualarm() function is a simplified interface to setitimer(), and uses the ITIMER_REAL interval timer.

SEE ALSO

alarm(2), getitimer(2), sleep(3C), <unistd.h>.

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 4, Version 2.