Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!uunet.UU.NET!sef
From: ian@airs.com (Ian Lance Taylor)
Newsgroups: comp.std.unix
Subject: Maximum values for MIN and TIME?
Message-ID: <1991Jun15.175940.6381@uunet.uu.net>
Date: 14 Jun 91 01:42:38 GMT
Sender: usenet@uunet.uu.net (UseNet News)
Organization: UUNET Communications Services
Lines: 20
Approved: sef@uunet.uu.net (Moderator, Sean Eric Fagan - comp.std.unix)
Originator: sef@uunet.UU.NET
Nntp-Posting-Host: uunet.uu.net
X-Submissions: std-unix@uunet.uu.net

Submitted-by: ian@airs.com (Ian Lance Taylor)

I want to read up to 4096 characters from the terminal in
non-canonical mode.  I want to wait until the characters arrive (with
a timeout).  It seems sensible to me to set MIN to the number of
characters I want to read and use alarm for a timeout.  But what is
the maximum value that I can set MIN to on a POSIX system?  Does the
standard specify this anywhere?  On System V the maximum is probably
255, but it's pretty easy to imagine an implementation for which the
maximum is 127.  I assume the maximum value is <= MAX_INPUT; are there
any other constraints?  I've only seen the 1988 copy of the standard,
so apologies if this is covered in the 1990 revision.
-- 
Ian Taylor                   ian@airs.com                 uunet!airs!ian
First person to identify this quote wins a free e-mail message:
``If he could have moved, he would have gotten up and gone after the man
to thank him for wearing something so marvelously interesting.''


Volume-Number: Volume 24, Number 4