From: Jarkko Hietaniemi Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2001 15:08:29 +0000 (+0000) Subject: Reword the alarm explanation. X-Git-Url: http://git.shadowcat.co.uk/gitweb/gitweb.cgi?a=commitdiff_plain;h=d400eac8cf7f6208b5e548bc63ef450745fbe2d4;p=p5sagit%2Fp5-mst-13.2.git Reword the alarm explanation. p4raw-id: //depot/perl@13806 --- diff --git a/pod/perlfunc.pod b/pod/perlfunc.pod index 047e7f6..e5f322c 100644 --- a/pod/perlfunc.pod +++ b/pod/perlfunc.pod @@ -386,14 +386,16 @@ value of $^F. See L. =item alarm Arranges to have a SIGALRM delivered to this process after the -specified number of seconds have elapsed. If SECONDS is not specified, -the value stored in C<$_> is used. (On some machines, -unfortunately, the elapsed time may be up to one second less than you -specified because of how seconds are counted.) Only one timer may be -counting at once. Each call disables the previous timer, and an -argument of C<0> may be supplied to cancel the previous timer without -starting a new one. The returned value is the amount of time remaining -on the previous timer. +specified number of wallclock seconds have elapsed. If SECONDS is not +specified, the value stored in C<$_> is used. (On some machines, +unfortunately, the elapsed time may be up to one second less or more +than you specified because of how seconds are counted, and process +scheduling may delay the delivery of the signal even further.) + +Only one timer may be counting at once. Each call disables the +previous timer, and an argument of C<0> may be supplied to cancel the +previous timer without starting a new one. The returned value is the +amount of time remaining on the previous timer. For delays of finer granularity than one second, you may use Perl's four-argument version of select() leaving the first three arguments