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sleep(3)

NAME

     sleep -- suspend process execution for an interval measured in seconds

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     unsigned int
     sleep(unsigned int seconds);

DESCRIPTION

     The sleep() function suspends execution of the calling process until
     either seconds seconds have elapsed or a signal is delivered to the
     process and its action is to invoke a signal-catching function or to ter-
     minate the process.  System activity may lengthen the sleep by an inde-
     terminate amount.

     This function is implemented using nanosleep(2) by pausing for seconds
     seconds or until a signal occurs.	Consequently, in this implementation,
     sleeping has no effect on the state of process timers, and there is no
     special handling for SIGALRM.

RETURN VALUES

     If the sleep() function returns because the requested time has elapsed,
     the value returned will be zero.  If the sleep() function returns due to
     the delivery of a signal, the value returned will be the unslept amount
     (the requested time minus the time actually slept) in seconds.

SEE ALSO

     nanosleep(2), usleep(3)

STANDARDS

     The sleep() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').

HISTORY

     A sleep() function appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

FreeBSD 5.4		       February 13, 1998		   FreeBSD 5.4

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