nice(1) - NetBSD Manual Pages

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NICE(1)                 NetBSD General Commands Manual                 NICE(1)


NAME

     nice -- execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority


SYNOPSIS

     nice [-n increment] utility [argument ...]


DESCRIPTION

     nice runs utility at an altered scheduling priority.  If an increment is
     given, it is used; otherwise an increment of 10 is assumed.  The super-
     user can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using a neg-
     ative increment.  The priority can be adjusted over a range of -20 (the
     highest) to 20 (the lowest).  A priority of 19 or 20 will prevent a
     process from taking any cycles from others at nice 0 or better.

     Available options:

     -n increment
             A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system
             scheduling priority of utility.


EXIT STATUS

     The nice utility exits with one of the following values:

     1-125   An error occurred in the nice utility.

     126     The utility was found but could not be invoked.

     127     The utility could not be found.

     Otherwise, the exit status of nice will be that of utility.


COMPATIBILITY

     The historic -increment option has been deprecated but is still supported
     in this implementation.


SEE ALSO

     csh(1), getpriority(2), setpriority(2), renice(8)


STANDARDS

     The nice utility conforms to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'').


HISTORY

     A nice utility appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.


BUGS

     nice is built into csh(1) with a slightly different syntax than described
     here.  The form `nice +10' nices to positive nice, and `nice -10' can be
     used by the super-user to give a process more of the processor.

NetBSD 4.0                       June 6, 1993                       NetBSD 4.0