xref: /openbsd/usr.bin/nice/nice.1 (revision 404b540a)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: nice.1,v 1.18 2009/02/08 17:15:10 jmc Exp $
2.\"	$NetBSD: nice.1,v 1.6 1995/08/31 23:30:57 jtc Exp $
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31.\"	@(#)nice.1	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: February 8 2009 $
34.Dt NICE 1
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm nice
38.Nd execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority
39.Sh SYNOPSIS
40.Nm nice
41.Op Fl n Ar increment
42.Ar utility
43.Op Ar argument ...
44.Sh DESCRIPTION
45.Nm
46runs
47.Ar utility
48at an altered scheduling priority.
49If an
50.Ar increment
51is given, it is used; otherwise
52an increment of 10 is assumed.
53The superuser can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using
54a negative
55.Ar increment .
56The priority can be adjusted over a
57range of \-20 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest).
58.Pp
59The options are as follows:
60.Bl -tag -width Ds
61.It Fl n Ar increment
62A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system scheduling
63priority of
64.Ar utility .
65.El
66.Pp
67The
68.Nm
69utility shall exit with one of the following values:
70.Pp
71.Bl -tag -width indent -offset indent -compact
72.It 1\-125
73An error occurred.
74.It 126
75The
76.Ar utility
77was found but could not be invoked.
78.It 127
79The
80.Ar utility
81could not be found.
82.El
83.Pp
84Otherwise, the exit status of
85.Nm
86shall be that of
87.Ar utility .
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr csh 1 ,
90.Xr getpriority 2 ,
91.Xr renice 8
92.Sh STANDARDS
93The
94.Nm
95utility is compliant with the
96.St -p1003.1-2008
97specification.
98.Pp
99The historic
100.Fl Ns Ar increment
101option has been deprecated but is still supported in this implementation.
102.Pp
103.Nm
104also exists as a built-in to
105.Xr csh 1 ,
106though with a different syntax.
107.Sh HISTORY
108A
109.Nm
110utility appeared in
111.At v6 .
112