Manpages - sem_timedwait.3p

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer’s Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

sem_timedwait — lock a semaphore

  #include <semaphore.h>
  #include <time.h>
  int sem_timedwait(sem_t *restrict sem,
      const struct timespec *restrict abstime);

The sem_timedwait/() function shall lock the semaphore referenced by /sem as in the /sem_wait/() function. However, if the semaphore cannot be locked without waiting for another process or thread to unlock the semaphore by performing a /sem_post/() function, this wait shall be terminated when the specified timeout expires.

The timeout shall expire when the absolute time specified by abstime passes, as measured by the clock on which timeouts are based (that is, when the value of that clock equals or exceeds abstime), or if the absolute time specified by abstime has already been passed at the time of the call.

The timeout shall be based on the CLOCK_REALTIME clock. The resolution of the timeout shall be the resolution of the clock on which it is based. The timespec data type is defined as a structure in the <time.h> header.

Under no circumstance shall the function fail with a timeout if the semaphore can be locked immediately. The validity of the abstime need not be checked if the semaphore can be locked immediately.

The /sem_timedwait/() function shall return zero if the calling process successfully performed the semaphore lock operation on the semaphore designated by sem. If the call was unsuccessful, the state of the semaphore shall be unchanged, and the function shall return a value of -1 and set errno to indicate the error.

The /sem_timedwait/() function shall fail if:

EINVAL

The process or thread would have blocked, and the abstime parameter specified a nanoseconds field value less than zero or greater than or equal to 1 000 million.

ETIMEDOUT

The semaphore could not be locked before the specified timeout expired.

The /sem_timedwait/() function may fail if:

EDEADLK

A deadlock condition was detected.

EINTR

A signal interrupted this function.

EINVAL

The sem argument does not refer to a valid semaphore.

The following sections are informative.

The program shown below operates on an unnamed semaphore. The program expects two command-line arguments. The first argument specifies a seconds value that is used to set an alarm timer to generate a SIGALRM signal. This handler performs a /sem_post/(3) to increment the semaphore that is being waited on in /main/() using /sem_timedwait/(). The second command-line argument specifies the length of the timeout, in seconds, for /sem_timedwait/().

    #include <unistd.h>
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <stdlib.h>
    #include <semaphore.h>
    #include <time.h>
    #include <assert.h>
    #include <errno.h>
    #include <signal.h>
    sem_t sem;
    static void
    handler(int sig)
    {
        int sav_errno = errno;
        static const char info_msg[] = "sem_post() from handler\n";
        write(STDOUT_FILENO, info_msg, sizeof info_msg - 1);
        if (sem_post(&sem) == -1) {
            static const char err_msg[] = "sem_post() failed\n";
            write(STDERR_FILENO, err_msg, sizeof err_msg - 1);
            _exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        errno = sav_errno;
    }
    int
    main(int argc, char *argv[])
    {
        struct sigaction sa;
        struct timespec ts;
        int s;
        if (argc != 3) {
            fprintf(stderr, "Usage: %s <alarm-secs> <wait-secs>\n",
                argv[0]);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        if (sem_init(&sem, 0, 0) == -1) {
            perror("sem_init");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        /* Establish SIGALRM handler; set alarm timer using argv[1] */
        sa.sa_handler = handler;
        sigemptyset(&sa.sa_mask);
        sa.sa_flags = 0;
        if (sigaction(SIGALRM, &sa, NULL) == -1) {
            perror("sigaction");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        alarm(atoi(argv[1]));
        /* Calculate relative interval as current time plus
           number of seconds given argv[2] */
        if (clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts) == -1) {
            perror("clock_gettime");
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        ts.tv_sec += atoi(argv[2]);
        printf("main() about to call sem_timedwait()\n");
        while ((s = sem_timedwait(&sem, &ts)) == -1 && errno == EINTR)
            continue;       /* Restart if interrupted by handler */
        /* Check what happened */
        if (s == -1) {
            if (errno == ETIMEDOUT)
                printf("sem_timedwait() timed out\n");
            else
                perror("sem_timedwait");
        } else
            printf("sem_timedwait() succeeded\n");
        exit((s == 0) ? EXIT_SUCCESS : EXIT_FAILURE);
    }

Applications using these functions may be subject to priority inversion, as discussed in the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 3.291, Priority Inversion.

None.

None.

/sem_post ( )/, /sem_trywait ( )/, /semctl ( )/, /semget ( )/, /semop ( )/, /time ( )/

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 3.291, Priority Inversion, <semaphore.h>, <time.h>

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology – Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

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