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The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008
Copyright © 2001-2008 The IEEE and The Open Group

#### NAME

> timer_getoverrun, timer_gettime, timer_settime - per-process timers

#### SYNOPSIS

> ``[CX] #include <time.h>
> int timer_getoverrun(timer_t` timerid`);
> int timer_gettime(timer_t` timerid`, struct itimerspec *`value`);
> int timer_settime(timer_t` timerid`, int` flags`,
> const struct itimerspec *restrict` value`,
> struct itimerspec *restrict` ovalue`);``
> `
> `

#### DESCRIPTION

> The timer_gettime() function shall store the amount of time until the specified timer, timerid, expires and the reload value of the timer into the space pointed to by the value argument. The it_value 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 it_interval member of value shall contain the reload value last set by timer_settime().

> The timer_settime() function shall set the time until the next expiration of the timer specified by timerid from the it_value member of the value argument and arm the timer if the it_value member of value is non-zero. If the specified timer was already armed when timer_settime() is called, this call shall reset the time until next expiration to the value specified. If the it_value member of value is zero, the timer shall be disarmed. The effect of disarming or resetting a timer with pending expiration notifications is unspecified.

> If the flag TIMER_ABSTIME is not set in the argument flags, timer_settime() shall behave as if the time until next expiration is set to be equal to the interval specified by the it_value member of value. That is, the timer shall expire in it_value nanoseconds from when the call is made. If the flag TIMER_ABSTIME is set in the argument flags, timer_settime() shall behave as if the time until next expiration is set to be equal to the difference between the absolute time specified by the it_value member of value and the current value of the clock associated with timerid. That is, the timer shall expire when the clock reaches the value specified by the it_value member of value. If the specified time has already passed, the function shall succeed and the expiration notification shall be made.

> The reload value of the timer shall be set to the value specified by the it_interval member of value. When a timer is armed with a non-zero it_interval, a periodic (or repetitive) timer is specified.

> 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.

> If the argument ovalue is not NULL, the timer_settime() function shall store, in the location referenced by ovalue, 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.

> 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, the timer_getoverrun() 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 timer_getoverrun() shall apply to the most recent expiration signal delivery or acceptance for the timer. If no expiration signal has been delivered for the timer, the return value of timer_getoverrun() is unspecified.

#### RETURN VALUE

> If the timer_getoverrun() function succeeds, it shall return the timer expiration overrun count as explained above.

> If the timer_gettime() or timer_settime() functions succeed, a value of 0 shall be returned.

> If an error occurs for any of these functions, the value -1 shall be returned, and errno set to indicate the error.

#### ERRORS

> The timer_settime() function shall fail if:

> [EINVAL]
>   A value structure specified a nanosecond value less than zero or greater than or equal to 1000 million, and the it_value member of that structure did not specify zero seconds and nanoseconds.

> These functions may fail if:

> [EINVAL]
>   The timerid argument does not correspond to an ID returned by timer_create() but not yet deleted by timer_delete().

> The timer_settime() function may fail if:

> [EINVAL]
>   The it_interval member of value is not zero and the timer was created with notification by creation of a new thread ( sigev_sigev_notify was SIGEV_THREAD) and a fixed stack address has been set in the thread attribute pointed to by sigev_notify_attributes.

The following sections are informative.

#### EXAMPLES

> None.

#### APPLICATION USAGE

> Using fixed stack addresses is problematic when timer expiration is signaled by the creation of a new thread. Since it cannot be assumed that the thread created for one expiration is finished before the next expiration of the timer, it could happen that two threads use the same memory as a stack at the same time. This is invalid and produces undefined results.

#### RATIONALE

> 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.

> This volume of POSIX.1-2008 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 nanosleep() if they differ from the supported clock resolution. This is more of a procurement issue than a runtime application issue.

#### FUTURE DIRECTIONS

> None.

#### SEE ALSO

> clock_getres , timer_create

> XBD <time.h>

#### CHANGE HISTORY

> First released in Issue 5. Included for alignment with the POSIX Realtime Extension.

#### Issue 6

> The timer_getoverrun(), timer_gettime(), and timer_settime() functions are marked as part of the Timers option.

> The [ENOSYS] error condition has been removed as stubs need not be provided if an implementation does not support the Timers option.

> The [EINVAL] error condition is updated to include the following: "and the it_value member of that structure did not specify zero seconds and nanoseconds." This change is for IEEE PASC Interpretation 1003.1 #89.

> The DESCRIPTION for timer_getoverrun() is updated to clarify that "If no expiration signal has been delivered for the timer, or if the Realtime Signals Extension is not supported, the return value of timer_getoverrun() is unspecified".

> The restrict keyword is added to the timer_settime() prototype for alignment with the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.

> IEEE Std 1003.1-2001/Cor 2-2004, item XSH/TC2/D6/140 is applied, updating the ERRORS section so that the mandatory [EINVAL] error (``The timerid argument does not correspond to an ID returned by timer_create() but not yet deleted by timer_delete()") becomes optional.

> IEEE Std 1003.1-2001/Cor 2-2004, item XSH/TC2/D6/141 is applied, updating the ERRORS section to include an optional [EINVAL] error for the case when a timer is created with the notification method set to SIGEV_THREAD. APPLICATION USAGE text is also added.

#### Issue 7

> The timer_getoverrun(), timer_gettime(), and timer_settime() functions are moved from the Timers option to the Base.

> Functionality relating to the Realtime Signals Extension option is moved to the Base.

End of informative text.

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Copyright © 2001-2008 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights Reserved
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