ALARM Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2) Updated: 21 July 2025 Index   NAME alarm - set an alarm clock for delivery of a signal   SYNOPSIS #include <unistd.h> unsigned int alarm(unsigned int seconds);   DESCRIPTION alarm arranges for a SIGALRM signal to be delivered to the process in seconds seconds. If seconds is zero, no new alarm is scheduled. In any event any previously set alarm is cancelled.   RETURN VALUE alarm returns the number of seconds remaining until any previously scheduled alarm was due to be delivered, or zero if there was no previously scheduled alarm.   NOTES alarm and setitimer share the same timer; calls to one will interfere with use of the other. Scheduling delays can, as ever, cause the execution of the process to be delayed by an arbitrary amount of time.   CONFORMING TO SVr4, SVID, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3   SEE ALSO   Index NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION RETURN VALUE NOTES CONFORMING TO SEE ALSO This document was created by using the manual pages. Time: 11:56:05 GMT, March 24, 2025