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 function 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 Technology -- 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 .