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From: gdykes@theory.tn.cornell.edu (Gene Dykes)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Re: What is the error "alarm clock"?
Message-ID: <1991Apr17.143023.21254@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu>
Date: 17 Apr 91 14:30:23 GMT
References: <1991Apr16.182428.15148@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov>
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In article <1991Apr16.182428.15148@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov> pjs@euclid.jpl.nasa.gov writes:
>We're getting X applications terminated at random times by
>a cryptic error message, "alarm clock".
>
>Any info, please let me know.  This is on an HP Apollo Series 400
>running mwm.

I've seen this a lot, too.  My analysis may be wrong, but it appears
that on HPUX, alarms are not automatically reset, whereas they are on
other operating systems.  Seems awfully strange.  The solution, which
has always worked for me, is to go into the function that is called
for an alarm, and set another alarm there.

(I.e., what happens is that the first alarm signal is handled properly,
but then the signal handler is inactivated, so that when the second
alarm signal occurs, since no application code handles it, the operating
system gets it and aborts the program...)
-- 
Gene Dykes, gdykes@theory.tn.cornell.edu