ALARM(3C)                            BSD                             ALARM(3C)



NAME
     alarm - schedule signal after specified time

SYNOPSIS
     alarm(seconds)
     unsigned seconds;

DESCRIPTION
     This interface is made obsolete by setitimer(2).

     alarm causes signal SIGALRM, see sigvec(2), to be sent to the invoking
     process in a number of seconds given by the argument.  Unless caught or
     ignored, the signal terminates the process.

     Alarm requests are not stacked; successive calls reset the alarm clock.
     If the argument is 0, any alarm request is canceled.  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 2,147,483,647 seconds.

     The return value is the amount of time previously remaining in the alarm
     clock.

SEE ALSO
     sigpause(2), sigvec(2), signal(3C), sleep(3), ualarm(3), usleep(3)