Sleep (system call)
system call
A computer program (process, task, or thread) may sleep, which places it into an inactive state for a minimum period of time. Eventually the expiration of an interval timer, or the receipt of a signal or interrupt causes the program to resume execution.
Usage
A typical sleep system call takes a time value as a parameter, specifying the minimum amount of time that the process is to sleep before resuming execution. The parameter typically specifies seconds, although some operating systems provide finer resolution, such as milliseconds or microseconds.
Windows
On Windows, the Sleep() function takes a single parameter of the number of milliseconds to sleep. The Sleep() function is included in kernel32.dll.
The Sleep() function has a resolution no higher than the current timer resolution, typically 16ms but at minimum 1ms, adjustable via the timeBeginPeriod() family of "media timer" APIs. For higher precisions, it is necessary to use a busy loop over QueryPerformanceCounter(), such as the one used in gnulib.
Unix
On Unix-like and other POSIX operating systems, the sleep() function is called providing a single parameter of type unsigned integer of the number of seconds to sleep. A higher-precision version is the nanosleep() function and the now deprecated usleep.
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This entry incorporates text from “Sleep (system call)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.