Provided by: freebsd-manpages_12.0-1_all 
NAME
msleep, msleep_sbt, msleep_spin, msleep_spin_sbt, pause, pause_sig, pause_sbt, tsleep, tsleep_sbt, wakeup
— wait for events
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/param.h>
#include <sys/systm.h>
#include <sys/proc.h>
int
msleep(void *chan, struct mtx *mtx, int priority, const char *wmesg, int timo);
int
msleep_sbt(void *chan, struct mtx *mtx, int priority, const char *wmesg, sbintime_t sbt, sbintime_t pr,
int flags);
int
msleep_spin(void *chan, struct mtx *mtx, const char *wmesg, int timo);
int
msleep_spin_sbt(void *chan, struct mtx *mtx, const char *wmesg, sbintime_t sbt, sbintime_t pr,
int flags);
int
pause(const char *wmesg, int timo);
int
pause_sig(const char *wmesg, int timo);
int
pause_sbt(const char *wmesg, sbintime_t sbt, sbintime_t pr, int flags);
int
tsleep(void *chan, int priority, const char *wmesg, int timo);
int
tsleep_sbt(void *chan, int priority, const char *wmesg, sbintime_t sbt, sbintime_t pr, int flags);
void
wakeup(void *chan);
void
wakeup_one(void *chan);
DESCRIPTION
The functions tsleep(), msleep(), msleep_spin(), pause(), pause_sig(), pause_sbt(), wakeup(), and
wakeup_one() handle event-based thread blocking. If a thread must wait for an external event, it is put
to sleep by tsleep(), msleep(), msleep_spin(), pause(), pause_sig(), or pause_sbt(). Threads may also
wait using one of the locking primitive sleep routines mtx_sleep(9), rw_sleep(9), or sx_sleep(9).
The parameter chan is an arbitrary address that uniquely identifies the event on which the thread is
being put to sleep. All threads sleeping on a single chan are woken up later by wakeup(), often called
from inside an interrupt routine, to indicate that the resource the thread was blocking on is available
now.
The parameter priority specifies a new priority for the thread as well as some optional flags. If the
new priority is not 0, then the thread will be made runnable with the specified priority when it resumes.
PZERO should never be used, as it is for compatibility only. A new priority of 0 means to use the
thread's current priority when it is made runnable again.
If priority includes the PCATCH flag, pending signals are allowed to interrupt the sleep, otherwise
pending signals are ignored during the sleep. If PCATCH is set and a signal becomes pending, ERESTART is
returned if the current system call should be restarted if possible, and EINTR is returned if the system
call should be interrupted by the signal (return EINTR).
The parameter wmesg is a string describing the sleep condition for tools like ps(1). Due to the limited
space of those programs to display arbitrary strings, this message should not be longer than 6
characters.
The parameter timo specifies a timeout for the sleep. If timo is not 0, then the thread will sleep for
at most timo / hz seconds. If the timeout expires, then the sleep function will return EWOULDBLOCK.
msleep_sbt(), msleep_spin_sbt(), pause_sbt() and tsleep_sbt() functions take sbt parameter instead of
timo. It allows the caller to specify relative or absolute wakeup time with higher resolution in form of
sbintime_t. The parameter pr allows the caller to specify wanted absolute event precision. The
parameter flags allows the caller to pass additional callout_reset_sbt() flags.
Several of the sleep functions including msleep(), msleep_spin(), and the locking primitive sleep
routines specify an additional lock parameter. The lock will be released before sleeping and reacquired
before the sleep routine returns. If priority includes the PDROP flag, then the lock will not be
reacquired before returning. The lock is used to ensure that a condition can be checked atomically, and
that the current thread can be suspended without missing a change to the condition, or an associated
wakeup. In addition, all of the sleep routines will fully drop the Giant mutex (even if recursed) while
the thread is suspended and will reacquire the Giant mutex before the function returns. Note that the
Giant mutex may be specified as the lock to drop. In that case, however, the PDROP flag is not allowed.
To avoid lost wakeups, either a lock should be used to protect against races, or a timeout should be
specified to place an upper bound on the delay due to a lost wakeup. As a result, the tsleep() function
should only be invoked with a timeout of 0 when the Giant mutex is held.
The msleep() function requires that mtx reference a default, i.e. non-spin, mutex. Its use is deprecated
in favor of mtx_sleep(9) which provides identical behavior.
The msleep_spin() function requires that mtx reference a spin mutex. The msleep_spin() function does not
accept a priority parameter and thus does not support changing the current thread's priority, the PDROP
flag, or catching signals via the PCATCH flag.
The pause() function is a wrapper around tsleep() that suspends execution of the current thread for the
indicated timeout. The thread can not be awakened early by signals or calls to wakeup() or wakeup_one().
The pause_sig() function is a variant of pause() which can be awakened early by signals.
The wakeup_one() function makes the first thread in the queue that is sleeping on the parameter chan
runnable. This reduces the load when a large number of threads are sleeping on the same address, but
only one of them can actually do any useful work when made runnable.
Due to the way it works, the wakeup_one() function requires that only related threads sleep on a specific
chan address. It is the programmer's responsibility to choose a unique chan value. The older wakeup()
function did not require this, though it was never good practice for threads to share a chan value. When
converting from wakeup() to wakeup_one(), pay particular attention to ensure that no other threads wait
on the same chan.
If the timeout given by timo or sbt is based on an absolute real-time clock value, then the thread should
copy the global rtc_generation into its td_rtcgen member before reading the RTC. If the real-time clock
is adjusted, these functions will set td_rtcgen to zero and return zero. The caller should reconsider
its orientation with the new RTC value.
RETURN VALUES
When awakened by a call to wakeup() or wakeup_one(), if a signal is pending and PCATCH is specified, a
non-zero error code is returned. If the thread is awakened by a call to wakeup() or wakeup_one(), the
msleep(), msleep_spin(), tsleep(), and locking primitive sleep functions return 0. Zero can also be
returned when the real-time clock is adjusted; see above regarding td_rtcgen. Otherwise, a non-zero
error code is returned.
ERRORS
msleep(), msleep_spin(), tsleep(), and the locking primitive sleep functions will fail if:
[EINTR] The PCATCH flag was specified, a signal was caught, and the system call should be
interrupted.
[ERESTART] The PCATCH flag was specified, a signal was caught, and the system call should be
restarted.
[EWOULDBLOCK] A non-zero timeout was specified and the timeout expired.
SEE ALSO
ps(1), locking(9), malloc(9), mi_switch(9), mtx_sleep(9), rw_sleep(9), sx_sleep(9), timeout(9)
HISTORY
The functions sleep() and wakeup() were present in Version 1 AT&T UNIX. They were probably also present
in the preceding PDP-7 version of Unix. They were the basic process synchronization model.
The tsleep() function appeared in 4.4BSD and added the parameters wmesg and timo. The sleep() function
was removed in FreeBSD 2.2. The wakeup_one() function appeared in FreeBSD 2.2. The msleep() function
appeared in FreeBSD 5.0, and the msleep_spin() function appeared in FreeBSD 6.2. The pause() function
appeared in FreeBSD 7.0. The pause_sig() function appeared in FreeBSD 12.0.
AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Jörg Wunsch <joerg@FreeBSD.org>.
Debian March 4, 2018 SLEEP(9)