sleep

Purpose

Sleeps for a specified number of seconds.

Format

unslept = sleep(secs)

Parameters:

secs (scalar) – number of seconds to sleep.

Returns:

unslept (scalar) – number of seconds not slept.

Remarks

secs does not have to be an integer. If your system does not permit sleeping for a fractional number of seconds, secs will be rounded to the nearest integer, with a minimum value of 1.

If a program sleeps for the full number of secs specified, sleep() returns 0; otherwise, if the program is awakened early (e.g., by a signal), sleep() returns the amount of time not slept.

A program may sleep for longer than secs seconds, due to system scheduling.