1NANOSLEEP(2)               Linux Programmer's Manual              NANOSLEEP(2)
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NAME

6       nanosleep - high-resolution sleep
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <time.h>
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11       int nanosleep(const struct timespec *req, struct timespec *rem);
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13   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
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15       nanosleep(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 199309L
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DESCRIPTION

18       nanosleep()  suspends  the execution of the calling thread until either
19       at least the time specified in *req has elapsed, or the delivery  of  a
20       signal  that triggers the invocation of a handler in the calling thread
21       or that terminates the process.
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23       If the call is interrupted by a signal handler, nanosleep() returns -1,
24       sets  errno  to EINTR, and writes the remaining time into the structure
25       pointed to by rem unless rem is NULL.  The value of *rem  can  then  be
26       used  to  call  nanosleep() again and complete the specified pause (but
27       see NOTES).
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29       The structure timespec is  used  to  specify  intervals  of  time  with
30       nanosecond precision.  It is defined as follows:
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32           struct timespec {
33               time_t tv_sec;        /* seconds */
34               long   tv_nsec;       /* nanoseconds */
35           };
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37       The value of the nanoseconds field must be in the range 0 to 999999999.
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39       Compared  to  sleep(3)  and  usleep(3),  nanosleep()  has the following
40       advantages: it provides a higher resolution for  specifying  the  sleep
41       interval;  POSIX.1  explicitly specifies that it does not interact with
42       signals; and it makes the task of resuming a sleep that has been inter‐
43       rupted by a signal handler easier.
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RETURN VALUE

46       On  successfully  sleeping  for  the  requested  interval,  nanosleep()
47       returns 0.  If the call is interrupted by a signal handler  or  encoun‐
48       ters  an  error,  then  it  returns  -1, with errno set to indicate the
49       error.
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ERRORS

52       EFAULT Problem with copying information from user space.
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54       EINTR  The pause has been interrupted by a non-blocked signal that  was
55              delivered  to  the  thread.   The  remaining sleep time has been
56              written into *rem so that the thread can easily call nanosleep()
57              again and continue with the pause.
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59       EINVAL The  value  in  the  tv_nsec  field  was  not  in the range 0 to
60              999999999 or tv_sec was negative.
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CONFORMING TO

63       POSIX.1-2001.
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NOTES

66       If the interval specified in req is not an exact multiple of the granu‐
67       larity  underlying  clock  (see  time(7)),  then  the  interval will be
68       rounded up to the next multiple.  Furthermore,  after  the  sleep  com‐
69       pletes,  there may still be a delay before the CPU becomes free to once
70       again execute the calling thread.
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72       The fact that nanosleep() sleeps for a relative interval can  be  prob‐
73       lematic  if the call is repeatedly restarted after being interrupted by
74       signals, since the time between the interruptions and restarts  of  the
75       call  will  lead to drift in the time when the sleep finally completes.
76       This problem can be avoided by using clock_nanosleep(2) with  an  abso‐
77       lute time value.
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79       POSIX.1  specifies  that  nanosleep()  should  measure time against the
80       CLOCK_REALTIME clock.  However,  Linux  measures  the  time  using  the
81       CLOCK_MONOTONIC  clock.   This  probably  does  not  matter,  since the
82       POSIX.1  specification  for  clock_settime()  says  that  discontinuous
83       changes in CLOCK_REALTIME should not affect nanosleep():
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85              Setting  the  value  of  the CLOCK_REALTIME clock via clock_set‐
86              time() shall have no effect on threads that are blocked  waiting
87              for a relative time service based upon this clock, including the
88              nanosleep() function; ...   Consequently,  these  time  services
89              shall expire when the requested relative interval elapses, inde‐
90              pendently of the new or old value of the clock.
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92   Old behavior
93       In order to support applications requiring  much  more  precise  pauses
94       (e.g.,  in  order  to control some time-critical hardware), nanosleep()
95       would handle pauses of up to 2 ms by busy waiting with microsecond pre‐
96       cision  when  called  from  a thread scheduled under a real-time policy
97       like SCHED_FIFO or SCHED_RR.  This special  extension  was  removed  in
98       kernel  2.5.39,  hence is still present in current 2.4 kernels, but not
99       in 2.6 kernels.
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BUGS

102       In Linux 2.4, if nanosleep() is stopped by a  signal  (e.g.,  SIGTSTP),
103       then the call fails with the error EINTR after the thread is resumed by
104       a SIGCONT signal.  If the system call is subsequently  restarted,  then
105       the  time  that  the  thread  spent in the stopped state is not counted
106       against the sleep interval.
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SEE ALSO

109       clock_nanosleep(2), sched_setscheduler(2),  sleep(3),  timer_create(2),
110       usleep(3), time(7)
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COLOPHON

113       This  page  is  part of release 3.22 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
114       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
115       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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119Linux                             2009-01-19                      NANOSLEEP(2)
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