GNU bug report logs - #9102
"timeout 0 FOO" should timeout right away

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From: "Alan Curry" <pacman-cu <at> kosh.dhis.org>
To: eggert <at> cs.ucla.edu (Paul Eggert)
Cc: 9102 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#9102: "timeout 0 FOO" should timeout right away
Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2011 17:08:44 -0500 (GMT+5)

Paul Eggert writes:
> 
> "sleep 0" sleeps for zero seconds, and "timeout 0 FOO"
> should timeout in zero seconds as well.  Currently,
> it doesn't; it times out in an infinite number of seconds.
> I see why, from the internals (alarm (0) is a special
> call intended to cancel alarms).  However, 'timeout' shouldn't
> be exposing those internals to users; it should behave like
> 'sleep' does, as that's more consistent.
> 

What's the difference between running a command with a 0 second timeout
and not running the command at all? It could be killed before it even gets
scheduled.

-- 
Alan Curry

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