ALARM(3) Library Functions Manual ALARM(3)

alarmset signal timer alarm

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

#include <unistd.h>

unsigned
alarm(unsigned seconds);

This interface is made obsolete by setitimer(2).

The () function sets a timer to deliver the signal SIGALRM to the calling process after the specified number of seconds. If an alarm has already been set with alarm() but has not been delivered, another call to alarm() will supersede the prior call. The request alarm(0) voids the current alarm and the signal SIGALRM will not be delivered.

Due to setitimer(2) restriction the maximum number of seconds allowed is 100000000.

The return value of alarm() is the amount of time left on the timer from a previous call to alarm(). If no alarm is currently set, the return value is 0.

setitimer(2), sigaction(2), sigpause(2), sigvec(2), signal(3), sleep(3), ualarm(3), usleep(3)

An alarm() function appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.

April 19, 1994 macOS 14.6