Package: manpages-dev Version: 3.25-1 Severity: minor
The poll manpage says: The timeout argument specifies an upper limit on the time for which poll() will block, in milliseconds. While posix (all versions i bothered to check) require very distinct semantics: If none of the defined events have occurred on any selected file descriptor, poll() shall wait at least timeout milliseconds for an event to occur on any of the selected file descriptors. So in POSIX the timeout is a lower bound in the case where no other events. There are two big practical differences in behaviour between both alternatives: - "maximum times" cannot really be guaranteed on multitasking systems - event libraries that rely on the posix behaviour require at least twice as many iterations, as the kernel will often consistently return "too early" requiring another wait. I know that epoll_wait (which also specifies a maximum time) on at least 2.6.32 implements this "may return too early", and if poll uses the same mechanism it is not posix conformant, and this behaviour difference to posix should be mentioned due to it's relatively big practical difference to a posix implementation. -- System Information: Debian Release: squeeze/sid APT prefers testing APT policy: (990, 'testing'), (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (1, 'experimental') Architecture: amd64 (x86_64) Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-amd64 (SMP w/4 CPU cores) Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=en_US.UTF-8 (charmap=UTF-8) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Versions of packages manpages-dev depends on: hi manpages 3.25-1 Manual pages about using a GNU/Lin manpages-dev recommends no packages. Versions of packages manpages-dev suggests: ii man-db [man-browser] 2.5.7-4 on-line manual pager -- no debconf information -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
