sleep(3C)           (C Programming Language Utilities)            sleep(3C)


   NAME
         sleep - suspend execution for interval

   SYNOPSIS
         #include <unistd.h>

         unsigned sleep (unsigned seconds);

   DESCRIPTION
         The current process is suspended from execution for the number of
         seconds specified by the argument.  The actual suspension time may be
         less than that requested because any caught signal will terminate the
         sleep following execution of that signal's catching routine.  Also,
         the suspension time may be longer than requested by an arbitrary
         amount because of the scheduling of other activity in the system.
         The value returned by sleep will be the ``unslept'' amount (the
         requested time minus the time actually slept) in case the caller had
         an alarm set to go off earlier than the end of the requested sleep
         time, or premature arousal because of another caught signal.

         The routine is implemented by setting an alarm signal and pausing
         until it (or some other signal) occurs.  The previous state of the
         alarm signal is saved and restored.  The calling program may have set
         up an alarm signal before calling sleep.  If the sleep time exceeds
         the time until such alarm signal, the process sleeps only until the
         alarm signal would have occurred.  The caller's alarm catch routine
         is executed just before the sleep routine returns.  But if the sleep
         time is less than the time till such alarm, the prior alarm time is
         reset to go off at the same time it would have without the
         intervening sleep.

   SEE ALSO
         alarm(2), pause(2), signal(2), wait(2).




















   7/91                                                                 Page 1