path: root/man3p/timer_gettime.3p

.\" Copyright (c) 2001-2003 The Open Group, All Rights Reserved 
.TH "TIMER_GETOVERRUN" P 2003 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.\" timer_getoverrun 
.SH NAME
timer_getoverrun, timer_gettime, timer_settime \- per-process timers
(\fBREALTIME\fP)
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
\fB#include <time.h>
.br
.sp
int timer_getoverrun(timer_t\fP \fItimerid\fP\fB);
.br
int timer_gettime(timer_t\fP \fItimerid\fP\fB, struct itimerspec *\fP\fIvalue\fP\fB);
.br
int timer_settime(timer_t\fP \fItimerid\fP\fB, int\fP \fIflags\fP\fB,
.br
\ \ \ \ \ \  const struct itimerspec *restrict\fP \fIvalue\fP\fB,
.br
\ \ \ \ \ \  struct itimerspec *restrict\fP \fIovalue\fP\fB); \fP
\fB
.br
\fP
.SH DESCRIPTION
.LP
The \fItimer_gettime\fP() function shall store the amount of time
until the specified timer, \fItimerid\fP, expires and the
reload value of the timer into the space pointed to by the \fIvalue\fP
argument. The \fIit_value\fP member of this structure
shall contain the amount of time before the timer expires, or zero
if the timer is disarmed. This value is returned as the interval
until timer expiration, even if the timer was armed with absolute
time. The \fIit_interval\fP member of \fIvalue\fP shall contain
the reload value last set by \fItimer_settime\fP().
.LP
The \fItimer_settime\fP() function shall set the time until the next
expiration of the timer specified by \fItimerid\fP from
the \fIit_value\fP member of the \fIvalue\fP argument and arm the
timer if the \fIit_value\fP member of \fIvalue\fP is
non-zero. If the specified timer was already armed when \fItimer_settime\fP()
is called, this call shall reset the time until next
expiration to the \fIvalue\fP specified. If the \fIit_value\fP member
of \fIvalue\fP is zero, the timer shall be disarmed. The
effect of disarming or resetting a timer with pending expiration notifications
is unspecified.
.LP
If the flag TIMER_ABSTIME is not set in the argument \fIflags\fP,
\fItimer_settime\fP() shall behave as if the time until next
expiration is set to be equal to the interval specified by the \fIit_value\fP
member of \fIvalue\fP. That is, the timer shall
expire in \fIit_value\fP nanoseconds from when the call is made. If
the flag TIMER_ABSTIME is set in the argument \fIflags\fP,
\fItimer_settime\fP() shall behave as if the time until next expiration
is set to be equal to the difference between the absolute
time specified by the \fIit_value\fP member of \fIvalue\fP and the
current value of the clock associated with \fItimerid\fP.
That is, the timer shall expire when the clock reaches the value specified
by the \fIit_value\fP member of \fIvalue\fP. If the
specified time has already passed, the function shall succeed and
the expiration notification shall be made.
.LP
The reload value of the timer shall be set to the value specified
by the \fIit_interval\fP member of \fIvalue\fP. When a timer
is armed with a non-zero \fIit_interval\fP, a periodic (or repetitive)
timer is specified.
.LP
Time values that are between two consecutive non-negative integer
multiples of the resolution of the specified timer shall be
rounded up to the larger multiple of the resolution. Quantization
error shall not cause the timer to expire earlier than the
rounded time value.
.LP
If the argument \fIovalue\fP is not NULL, the \fItimer_settime\fP()
function shall store, in the location referenced by
\fIovalue\fP, a value representing the previous amount of time before
the timer would have expired, or zero if the timer was
disarmed, together with the previous timer reload value. Timers shall
not expire before their scheduled time.
.LP
Only a single signal shall be queued to the process for a given timer
at any point in time. When a timer for which a signal is
still pending expires, no signal shall be queued, and a timer overrun
shall occur.   \ When a timer
expiration signal is delivered to or accepted by a process, if the
implementation supports the Realtime Signals Extension, the
\fItimer_getoverrun\fP() function shall return the timer expiration
overrun count for the specified timer. The overrun count
returned contains the number of extra timer expirations that occurred
between the time the signal was generated (queued) and when
it was delivered or accepted, up to but not including an implementation-defined
maximum of {DELAYTIMER_MAX}. If the number of such
extra expirations is greater than or equal to {DELAYTIMER_MAX}, then
the overrun count shall be set to {DELAYTIMER_MAX}. The value
returned by \fItimer_getoverrun\fP() shall apply to the most recent
expiration signal delivery or acceptance for the timer.  If no expiration
signal has been delivered for the timer, or if the
Realtime Signals Extension is not supported, the return value of \fItimer_getoverrun\fP()
is unspecified.
.SH RETURN VALUE
.LP
If the \fItimer_getoverrun\fP() function succeeds, it shall return
the timer expiration overrun count as explained above.
.LP
If the \fItimer_gettime\fP() or \fItimer_settime\fP() functions succeed,
a value of 0 shall be returned.
.LP
If an error occurs for any of these functions, the value -1 shall
be returned, and \fIerrno\fP set to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
.LP
The \fItimer_getoverrun\fP(), \fItimer_gettime\fP(), and \fItimer_settime\fP()
functions shall fail if:
.TP 7
.B EINVAL
The \fItimerid\fP argument does not correspond to an ID returned by
\fItimer_create\fP() but not yet deleted by \fItimer_delete\fP().
.sp
.LP
The \fItimer_settime\fP() function shall fail if:
.TP 7
.B EINVAL
A \fIvalue\fP structure specified a nanosecond value less than zero
or greater than or equal to 1000 million, and the
\fIit_value\fP member of that structure did not specify zero seconds
and nanoseconds.
.sp
.LP
\fIThe following sections are informative.\fP
.SH EXAMPLES
.LP
None.
.SH APPLICATION USAGE
.LP
None.
.SH RATIONALE
.LP
Practical clocks tick at a finite rate, with rates of 100 hertz and
1000 hertz being common. The inverse of this tick rate is
the clock resolution, also called the clock granularity, which in
either case is expressed as a time duration, being 10
milliseconds and 1 millisecond respectively for these common rates.
The granularity of practical clocks implies that if one reads a
given clock twice in rapid succession, one may get the same time value
twice; and that timers must wait for the next clock tick
after the theoretical expiration time, to ensure that a timer never
returns too soon. Note also that the granularity of the clock
may be significantly coarser than the resolution of the data format
used to set and get time and interval values. Also note that
some implementations may choose to adjust time and/or interval values
to exactly match the ticks of the underlying clock.
.LP
This volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001 defines functions that allow
an application to determine the
implementation-supported resolution for the clocks and requires an
implementation to document the resolution supported for timers
and \fInanosleep\fP() if they differ from the supported clock resolution.
This is more
of a procurement issue than a runtime application issue.
.SH FUTURE DIRECTIONS
.LP
None.
.SH SEE ALSO
.LP
\fIclock_getres\fP() , \fItimer_create\fP() , the Base
Definitions volume of IEEE\ Std\ 1003.1-2001, \fI<time.h>\fP
.SH COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 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 .