Using Sleep() while using timers through setitimer
From the alarm(2) man page:
sleep()may be implemented usingSIGALRM; mixing calls toalarm()andsleep()is a bad idea.
Some implementations don't use SIGALRM, find a machine like that and you're set. Otherwise, you can try nanosleep(); it's implemented safely. From the nanosleep(2) man page:
Compared to
sleep(3)andusleep(3),nanosleep()has the advantage of not affecting any signals, it is standardized by POSIX, it provides higher timing resolution, and it allows to continue a sleep that has been interrupted by a signal more easily.
I'd use a library that gives an abstraction to these OS services. I use ACE library for timers and sleeps (ACE_OS::sleep, ACE_Reactor::schedule_timeout) and they work together without any problems. As far as I know ACE uses select for its timers. I guess boost::thread::sleep and boost::asio::deadline_timer will accomplish the task successfully as well.