1.\" 2.\" This file and its contents are supplied under the terms of the 3.\" Common Development and Distribution License ("CDDL"), version 1.0. 4.\" You may only use this file in accordance with the terms of version 5.\" 1.0 of the CDDL. 6.\" 7.\" A full copy of the text of the CDDL should have accompanied this 8.\" source. A copy of the CDDL is also available via the Internet at 9.\" http://www.illumos.org/license/CDDL. 10.\" 11.\" 12.\" Copyright (c) 2015, Joyent, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 13.\" 14.Dd Feb 23, 2015 15.Dt TIMERFD 5 16.Os 17.Sh NAME 18.Nm timerfd 19.Nd Linux-compatible timer notification facility 20.Sh SYNOPSIS 21.In sys/timerfd.h 22.Sh DESCRIPTION 23.Nm 24is a Linux-borne facility for creating POSIX timers and 25receiving their subsequent events via a file descriptor. 26The facility itself is arguably unnecessary: 27portable code can either use the timeout value present in 28.Xr poll 2 / 29.Xr port_get 3C 30or -- if this is deemed of unacceptably poor resolution -- create a POSIX timer 31via 32.Xr timer_create 3C 33and use the resulting signal to induce an 34.Sy EINTR 35to polling threads. (For code that need not be 36portable, the 37.Sy SIGEV_PORT 38signal notification allows for explicit, event-oriented timer notification to be 39sent to a specified port; see 40.Xr signal.h 3HEAD 41for details.) This facility therefore exists only to accommodate Linux-borne 42applications and binaries; it is compatible with its Linux antecedent in both 43binary interface and in semantics. 44.Sh SEE ALSO 45.Xr timerfd_create 3C , 46.Xr timerfd_gettime 3C , 47.Xr timerfd_settime 3C 48