pause.2 (2010 09)

pause(2) pause(2)

NAME

pause - suspend process until signal

SYNOPSIS

#include <unistd.h>

int pause(void);

DESCRIPTION

pause() suspends the calling process until it receives a signal. The signal must be one that is not

currently set to be ignored or blocked (masked) by the calling process.

If the signal causes termination of the calling process,

pause() does not return.

If the signal is caught by the calling process and control is returned from the signal-catching function (see

signal (5)), the calling process resumes execution from the point of suspension; with a return value of −1

from

pause() and errno set to [EINTR].

APPLICATION USAGE

Threads Considerations

Signal dispositions (such as catch/default/ignore) are shared by all threads in the process and blocked sig-

nal masks are maintained by each thread. Therefore, the signals being waited for should not be ignored

by the process or blocked by the calling thread.

pause() will suspend only the calling thread until it receives a signal.

If other threads in the process do not block the signal, the signal may be delivered to another thread in

the process and the thread in

pause() may continue waiting. For this reason, the use of

sigwait() is

recommended instead of

pause() for multi-threaded applications.

For more information regarding signals and threads, refer to signal (5).