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NAME
sem_wait, sem_timedwait, sem_trywait - lock a semaphore
LIBRARY
POSIX threads library (libpthread, -lpthread)
SYNOPSIS
#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);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
sem_timedwait():
_POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L
DESCRIPTION
sem_wait() decrements (locks) the semaphore pointed to by sem. If the semaphore's value
is greater than zero, then the decrement proceeds, and the function returns, immediately.
If the semaphore currently has the value zero, then the call blocks until either it
becomes possible to perform the decrement (i.e., the semaphore value rises above zero), or
a signal handler interrupts the call.
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 timespec(3) structure that specifies an
absolute timeout in seconds and nanoseconds since the Epoch, 1970-01-01 00:00:00 +0000
(UTC).
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.
RETURN VALUE
All of these functions return 0 on success; on error, the value of the semaphore is left
unchanged, -1 is returned, and errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
EAGAIN (sem_trywait()) The operation could not be performed without blocking (i.e., the
semaphore currently has the value zero).
EINTR The call was interrupted by a signal handler; see signal(7).
EINVAL sem is not a valid semaphore.
EINVAL (sem_timedwait()) The value of abs_timeout.tv_nsecs is less than 0, or greater than
or equal to 1000 million.
ETIMEDOUT
(sem_timedwait()) The call timed out before the semaphore could be locked.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│sem_wait(), sem_trywait(), sem_timedwait() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
EXAMPLES
The (somewhat trivial) program shown below operates on an unnamed semaphore. The program
expects two command-line arguments. The first argument specifies a seconds value that is
used to set an alarm timer to generate a SIGALRM signal. This handler performs a
sem_post(3) to increment the semaphore that is being waited on in main() using
sem_timedwait(). The second command-line argument specifies the length of the timeout, in
seconds, for sem_timedwait(). The following shows what happens on two different runs of
the program:
$ ./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
Program source
#include <errno.h>
#include <semaphore.h>
#include <signal.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <time.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <assert.h>
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("%s() about to call sem_timedwait()\n", __func__);
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);
}
SEE ALSO
clock_gettime(2), sem_getvalue(3), sem_post(3), timespec(3), sem_overview(7), time(7)