1.\" $NetBSD: nice.1,v 1.15 2012/03/22 07:58:19 wiz Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 4.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 7.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 8.\" are met: 9.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 10.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 11.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 13.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 14.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 15.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 16.\" without specific prior written permission. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 19.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 20.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 21.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 22.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 23.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 24.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 25.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 26.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 27.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 28.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.\" @(#)nice.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 31.\" 32.Dd June 6, 1993 33.Dt NICE 1 34.Os 35.Sh NAME 36.Nm nice 37.Nd execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.Nm 40.Op Fl n Ar increment 41.Ar utility 42.Op Ar argument ... 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44.Nm 45runs 46.Ar utility 47at an altered scheduling priority. 48If an 49.Ar increment 50is given, it is used; otherwise 51an increment of 10 is assumed. 52The super-user can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using 53a negative 54.Ar increment . 55The priority can be adjusted over a 56range of -20 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest). 57A priority of 19 or 20 58will prevent a process from taking any cycles from others at nice 0 or 59better. 60.Pp 61Available options: 62.Bl -tag -width indent 63.It Fl n Ar increment 64A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system scheduling 65priority of 66.Ar utility . 67.El 68.Sh EXIT STATUS 69The 70.Nm 71utility exits with one of the following values: 72.Bl -tag -width indent 73.It 1-125 74An error occurred in the 75.Nm 76utility. 77.It 126 78The 79.Ar utility 80was found but could not be invoked. 81.It 127 82The 83.Ar utility 84could not be found. 85.El 86.Pp 87Otherwise, the exit status of 88.Nm 89will be that of 90.Ar utility . 91.Sh COMPATIBILITY 92The historic 93.Fl Ns Ar increment 94option has been deprecated but is still supported in this implementation. 95.Sh SEE ALSO 96.Xr csh 1 , 97.Xr getpriority 2 , 98.Xr setpriority 2 , 99.Xr renice 8 100.Sh STANDARDS 101The 102.Nm 103utility conforms to 104.St -p1003.2-92 . 105.Sh HISTORY 106A 107.Nm 108utility appeared in 109.At v6 . 110.Sh BUGS 111.Nm 112is built into 113.Xr csh 1 114with a slightly different syntax than described here. 115The form 116.Ql nice +10 117nices to positive nice, and 118.Ql nice \-10 119can be used 120by the super-user to give a process more of the processor. 121