#include <semaphore.h>
int sem_wait(sem_t *sem);
int sem_trywait(sem_t *sem);
int sem_timedwait(sem_t *restrict sem,
const struct timespec *restrict abs_timeout);
Link with -pthread.
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
sem_timedwait():
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
sem_trywait() is the same as sem_wait(), except that if the decrement cannot be immediately performed, then call returns an error (errno set to EAGAIN) instead of blocking.
sem_timedwait() is the same as sem_wait(), except that abs_timeout specifies a limit on the amount of time that the call should block if the decrement cannot be immediately performed. The abs_timeout argument points to a structure that specifies an absolute timeout in seconds and nanoseconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 (UTC). This structure is defined as follows:
struct timespec {
time_t tv_sec; /* Seconds */
long tv_nsec; /* Nanoseconds [0 .. 999999999] */
};
If the timeout has already expired by the time of the call, and the semaphore could not be locked immediately, then sem_timedwait() fails with a timeout error (errno set to ETIMEDOUT).
If the operation can be performed immediately, then sem_timedwait() never fails with a timeout error, regardless of the value of abs_timeout. Furthermore, the validity of abs_timeout is not checked in this case.
The following additional error can occur for sem_trywait():
The following additional errors can occur for sem_timedwait():
| Interface | Attribute | Value |
| sem_wait(), sem_trywait(), sem_timedwait() | Thread safety | MT-Safe |
$ ./a.out 2 3 About to call sem_timedwait() sem_post() from handler sem_timedwait() succeeded $ ./a.out 2 1 About to call sem_timedwait() sem_timedwait() timed out
sem_t sem;
#define handle_error(msg) \
do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
static void
handler(int sig)
{
write(STDOUT_FILENO, "sem_post() from handler\n", 24);
if (sem_post(&sem) == -1) {
write(STDERR_FILENO, "sem_post() failed\n", 18);
_exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
}
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)
handle_error("sem_init");
/* 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)
handle_error("sigaction");
alarm(atoi(argv[1]));
/* Calculate relative interval as current time plus
number of seconds given argv[2]. */
if (clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, &ts) == -1)
handle_error("clock_gettime");
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);
}