dwww Home | Manual pages | Find package

idle(2)                       System Calls Manual                      idle(2)

NAME
       idle - make process 0 idle

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       [[deprecated]] int idle(void);

DESCRIPTION
       idle()  is an internal system call used during bootstrap.  It marks the
       process's pages as swappable, lowers its priority, and enters the  main
       scheduling loop.  idle() never returns.

       Only  process 0 may call idle().  Any user process, even a process with
       superuser permission, will receive EPERM.

RETURN VALUE
       idle() never returns for process 0, and always returns -1  for  a  user
       process.

ERRORS
       EPERM  Always, for a user process.

STANDARDS
       Linux.

HISTORY
       Removed in Linux 2.3.13.

Linux man-pages 6.7               2023-10-31                           idle(2)

Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Mon Jul 13 14:29:41 CEST 2026.