On Fri, 18 Jun 2021 15:05:52 -0600, "Theo de Raadt" wrote:
> Without considering the cases where an incorrect value is passed in...
>
> How many pieces of code have you found that inspect the return value?
Very few. My concern is for those that use the return value when
determining how much time is "left" to sleep. E.g.
u_int sleep_time = 300;
u_int slept;
while (sleep_time > 0) {
slept = alarm(sleep_time);
sleep_time -= slept;
}
If alarm() spuriously returns UINT_MAX that would be unhelpful. Of
course, if alarm() _always_ fails for some reason and returns 0 on
error that is probably just as bad if not worse. :-)
So perhaps it doesn't really matter either way.
- todd
