PAUSE(3P)						     POSIX Programmer's Manual							 PAUSE(3P)

PROLOG

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

NAME

       pause - suspend the thread until a signal is received

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       int pause(void);

DESCRIPTION

       The pause() function shall suspend the calling thread until delivery of a signal whose action is either to execute a signal-catching  func-
       tion or to terminate the process.

       If the action is to terminate the process, pause() shall not return.

       If the action is to execute a signal-catching function, pause() shall return after the signal-catching function returns.

RETURN VALUE

       Since  pause()  suspends  thread  execution  indefinitely unless interrupted by a signal, there is no successful completion return value. A
       value of -1 shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

       The pause() function shall fail if:

       EINTR  A signal is caught by the calling process and control is returned from the signal-catching function.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

       None.

APPLICATION USAGE

       Many common uses of pause() have timing windows. The scenario involves checking a condition related to a signal and, if the signal has  not
       occurred,  calling  pause().  When  the signal occurs between the check and the call to pause(), the process often blocks indefinitely. The
       sigprocmask() and sigsuspend() functions can be used to avoid this type of problem.

RATIONALE

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       sigsuspend(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <unistd.h>

COPYRIGHT

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technol-
       ogy -- 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 .

IEEE
/The Open Group						       2003								 PAUSE(3P)