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 superuser
can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using a negative
increment. The priority can be adjusted over a range
of -20 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest).
The options are as follows:
-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.
- 126
- The utility was found but could not be invoked.
- 127
- The utility could not be found.
Otherwise, the exit status of nice
shall
be that of utility.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The nice
utility is compliant with the
IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”)
specification.
The historic
-
increment option has been
deprecated but is still supported in this implementation.
nice
also exists as a built-in to
csh(1), though with a different syntax.
HISTORY
A nice
utility appeared in
Version 6 AT&T UNIX.