ALARM(3C)
NAME
alarm − schedule signal after specified time
USAGE
alarm(seconds)
unsigned seconds;
DESCRIPTION
This interface has been made obsolete by setitimer(2).
Alarm causes the signal SIGALRM (see signal(3C)), to be sent to the invoking process after the number of seconds specified by the argument. Unless caught or ignored by the program, the signal terminates the process.
Alarm requests are not stacked; successive calls reset the alarm clock. If seconds is set to zero, any pending alarm request is cancelled. Because of scheduling delays, when the signal is caught, the program may not resume execution immediately. The largest value of seconds allowed is 2147483647.
RETURN VALUE
The return value is the amount of time previously remaining in the alarm clock.