gcc - How to implement a timer with interruption in C++?

Question

I'm using the GCC compiler and C++ and I want to make a timer that triggers an interruption when the countdown is 0.

Any Ideas? Thanks in advance.

EDIT

Thanks to Adam, I know how to do it.

Now. What about multiple timers running in parallel?

Actually, these timers are for something very basic. In NCURSES, I have a list of things. When I press a key, one of the things will change colors for 5 seconds. If I press another key, another thing in the list will do the same. It's like emphasize strings depending on the user input. Is there a simpler way to do that?

Answer 1

An easy, portable way to implement an interrupt timer is using Boost.ASIO. Specifically, the boost::asio::deadline_timer class allows you to specify a time duration and an interrupt handler which will be executed asynchronously when the timer runs out.

See here for a quick tutorial and demonstration.