Timeout Class
Contains constants that specify infinite time-out intervals. This class cannot be inherited.
Assembly: mscorlib (in mscorlib.dll)
| Name | Description | |
|---|---|---|
![]() ![]() | Infinite | A constant used to specify an infinite waiting period, for threading methods that accept an Int32 parameter. |
![]() ![]() | InfiniteTimeSpan | A constant used to specify an infinite waiting period, for methods that accept a TimeSpan parameter. |
The members of this class are used to specify infinite time-out intervals in threading operations. Infinite is used by methods that accept an integer millisecondsTimeout parameter, such as Thread.Sleep(Int32), Thread.Join(Int32), and ReaderWriterLock.AcquireReaderLock(Int32). InfiniteTimeSpan is used by methods that accept a timeout parameter of type TimeSpan, such as Thread.Sleep(TimeSpan), Thread.Join(TimeSpan), and ReaderWriterLock.AcquireReaderLock(TimeSpan).
The following example shows a thread going to sleep for an infinite time and subsequently being woken up.
using System; using System.Security.Permissions; using System.Threading; class ThreadInterrupt { static void Main() { StayAwake stayAwake = new StayAwake(); Thread newThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(stayAwake.ThreadMethod)); newThread.Start(); // The following line causes an exception to be thrown // in ThreadMethod if newThread is currently blocked // or becomes blocked in the future. newThread.Interrupt(); Console.WriteLine("Main thread calls Interrupt on newThread."); // Tell newThread to go to sleep. stayAwake.SleepSwitch = true; // Wait for newThread to end. newThread.Join(); } } class StayAwake { bool sleepSwitch = false; public bool SleepSwitch { set{ sleepSwitch = value; } } public StayAwake(){} public void ThreadMethod() { Console.WriteLine("newThread is executing ThreadMethod."); while(!sleepSwitch) { // Use SpinWait instead of Sleep to demonstrate the // effect of calling Interrupt on a running thread. Thread.SpinWait(10000000); } try { Console.WriteLine("newThread going to sleep."); // When newThread goes to sleep, it is immediately // woken up by a ThreadInterruptedException. Thread.Sleep(Timeout.Infinite); } catch(ThreadInterruptedException e) { Console.WriteLine("newThread cannot go to sleep - " + "interrupted by main thread."); } } }
Available since 8
.NET Framework
Available since 1.1
Portable Class Library
Supported in: portable .NET platforms
Silverlight
Available since 2.0
Windows Phone Silverlight
Available since 7.0
Windows Phone
Available since 8.1
This type is thread safe.

