SLEEP(3) Linux Programmer's Manual SLEEP(3) NAME sleep - sleep for a specified number of seconds SYNOPSIS #include <unistd.h> unsigned int sleep(unsigned int seconds); DESCRIPTION sleep() causes the calling thread to sleep either until the number of real-time seconds specified in seconds have elapsed or until a signal arrives which is not ignored. RETURN VALUE Zero if the requested time has elapsed, or the number of seconds left to sleep, if the call was interrupted by a signal handler. ATTRIBUTES For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). ┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐ │Interface │ Attribute │ Value │ ├──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤ │sleep() │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe sig:SIGCHLD/linux │ └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘ CONFORMING TO POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008. NOTES On Linux, sleep() is implemented via nanosleep(2). See the nanosleep(2) man page for a discussion of the clock used. Portability notes On some systems, sleep() may be implemented using alarm(2) and SIGALRM (POSIX.1 permits this); mixing calls to alarm(2) and sleep() is a bad idea. Using longjmp(3) from a signal handler or modifying the handling of SIGALRM while sleeping will cause undefined results. SEE ALSO sleep(1), alarm(2), nanosleep(2), signal(2), signal(7) GNU 2021-03-22 SLEEP(3)