alarm(2)
NAME
alarm − schedule signal after specified time
SYNTAX
unsigned alarm(seconds)
unsigned seconds;
DESCRIPTION
The alarm system call causes the SIGALRM signal to be sent to the invoking process in specified number of seconds. Unless caught or ignored, the signal terminates the process.
Requests are not stacked. Successive calls reset the alarm clock. If the argument is 0, any alarm request is cancelled. Because the clock has a 1-second resolution, the signal may occur up to one second early. Because of scheduling delays, resumption of execution of when the signal is caught may be delayed an arbitrary amount. The longest specifiable delay time is 65535 seconds.
RETURN VALUE
If successful, returns the amount of time previously remaining in the alarm clock.
ASSEMBLER
(alarm = 27.)
(seconds in r0)
sys alarm
(previous amount in r0)