HALT(3)
NAME
halt, pause − pause or halt the processor
SYNOPSIS
#include <kernel.h>
halt();
pause();
DESCRIPTION
Halt stops the processor immediately without affecting devices or direct-memory-access (DMA) operations on the bus. Once halted, the processor will not respond to interrupts. Halt is useful for debugging the operating system.
Pause stops the processor until an interrupt occurs, allowing it to continue at the instruction following the pause when the interrupt returns. Pause is used in the null process instead of an infinite loop to avoid taking bus bandwidth needlessly.
In the current implementation, both halt and pause are macros that expand to the assembler language halt and pause instructions. Thus, they can only be executed in kernel mode.
SEE ALSO
December 01, 1986 — Xinu Programmer’s Manual