
NAME
	  sleep	- suspend execution for	interval
SYNTAX
	  unsigned sleep (seconds)
	  unsigned seconds;
DESCRIPTION
	  The current process is suspended from	execution for the
	  number of seconds specified by the argument.	The actual
	  suspension time may be less than that	requested for two
	  reasons: (1) Because scheduled wakeups occur at fixed	1-
	  second intervals, (on	the second, according to an internal
	  clock) and (2) because any caught signal will	terminate the
	  sleep	following execution of that signal's catching routine.
	  Also,	the suspension time may	be longer than requested by an
	  arbitrary amount due to the scheduling of other activity in
	  the system.  The value returned by sleep will	be the
	  ``unslept'' amount (the requested time minus the time
	  actually slept) in case the caller had an alarm set to go
	  off earlier than the end of the requested sleep time,	or
	  premature arousal due	to another caught signal.
	  The routine is implemented by	setting	an alarm signal	and
	  pausing until	it (or some other signal) occurs.  The
	  previous state of the	alarm signal is	saved and restored.
	  The calling program may have set up an alarm signal before
	  calling sleep.  If the sleep time exceeds the	time till such
	  alarm	signal,	the process sleeps only	until the alarm	signal
	  would	have occurred.	The caller's alarm catch routine is
	  executed just	before the sleep routine returns.  But if the
	  sleep	time is	less than the time till	such alarm, the	prior
	  alarm	time is	reset to go off	at the same time it would have
	  without the intervening sleep.
SEE ALSO
	  alarm(2), pause(2), signal(2).
				  
 
