# sem_acquire

(PHP 4, PHP 5, PHP 7)

sem_acquire — Acquire a semaphore

### Description

sem_acquire ( resource `$sem_identifier` [, bool `$nowait` = `FALSE` ] ) : bool

sem_acquire() by default blocks (if necessary) until the semaphore can be acquired. A process attempting to acquire a semaphore which it has already acquired will block forever if acquiring the semaphore would cause its maximum number of semaphore to be exceeded.

After processing a request, any semaphores acquired by the process but not explicitly released will be released automatically and a warning will be generated.

### Parameters

`sem_identifier`

  `sem_identifier` is a semaphore resource, obtained from sem_get().

`nowait`

  Specifies if the process shouldn't wait for the semaphore to be acquired. If set to `true`, the call will return `false` immediately if a semaphore cannot be immediately acquired.

### Return Values

Returns `TRUE` on success or `FALSE` on failure.

### Changelog

Version | Description
--- | ---
5.6.1 | The `$nowait` parameter was added.

### See Also

- sem_get() - Get a semaphore id
- sem_release() - Release a semaphore