summaryrefslogtreecommitdiff
path: root/usr.bin/nice/nice.1
blob: b72cb229132ed6e93d40fd886f85e0633ff75066 (plain)
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
.\"	$OpenBSD: nice.1,v 1.4 1998/09/27 16:57:48 aaron Exp $
.\"	$NetBSD: nice.1,v 1.6 1995/08/31 23:30:57 jtc Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"	@(#)nice.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
.\"
.Dd June 6, 1993
.Dt NICE 1
.Os 
.Sh NAME
.Nm nice
.Nd execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm nice
.Op Fl n Ar increment
.Ar utility
.Op Ar argument ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm nice
runs
.Ar utility
at an altered scheduling priority.
If an 
.Ar 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 negative 
.Ar increment .
The priority can be adjusted over a
range of -20 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest).
.Pp
Available options:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Fl n Ar increment
A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system scheduling
priority of 
.Ar utility .
.El
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
The
.Nm nice
utility shall exit with one of the following values:
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It 1-125
An error occurred in the 
.Nm nice
utility.
.It 126
The 
.Ar utility
was found but could not be invoked.
.It 127
The 
.Ar utility
could not be found.
.El
.Pp
Otherwise, the exit status of 
.Nm nice
shall be that of 
.Ar utility .
.Sh COMPATIBILITY
The historic 
.Fl Ns Ar increment 
option has been deprecated but is still supported in this implementation.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr csh 1 ,
.Xr getpriority 2 ,
.Xr setpriority 2 ,
.Xr renice 8
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Nm nice
utility conforms to 
.St -p1003.2-92 .
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm nice
utility appeared in
.At v6 .
.Sh BUGS
.Nm nice
is built into
.Xr csh  1
with a slightly different syntax than described here.  The form
.Ql nice +10
nices to positive nice, and
.Ql nice \-10
can be used
by the super-user to give a process more of the processor.