1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" %sccs.include.redist.man% 5.\" 6.\" @(#)nice.1 6.4 (Berkeley) 06/11/90 7.\" 8.Dd 9.Dt NICE 1 10.Os BSD 4 11.Sh NAME 12.Nm nice 13.Nd execute a command at a low scheduling priority 14.Sh SYNOPSIS 15.Nm nice 16.Oo 17.Op Fl Ar number 18.Oo 19.Ar command 20.Op Ar arguments 21.Sh DESCRIPTION 22.Nm Nice 23runs 24.Ar command 25at a low priority. 26(Think of low and slow). 27If 28.Ar \-number 29is specified, and if it is greater than or equal 30to 10 (the default), 31.Nm nice 32will execute 33.Ar command 34at that priority. 35The upper bound, or lowest priority that 36.Nm nice 37will run a command is 20. 38The lower bounds or 39higher priorities (integers less than 10) 40can only be requested by the super-user. 41Negative numbers are expressed as 42.Ar \-\-number. 43.Pp 44The returned exit status is the exit value from the 45command executed by 46.Nm nice . 47.Sh SEE ALSO 48.Xr csh 1 , 49.Xr nice 1 , 50.\" .Xr setpriority 2 , 51.Xr renice 8 52.Sh HISTORY 53.Nm Nice 54appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX. 55.Sh BUGS 56.Nm Nice 57is particular to 58.Xr sh 1 . 59If you use 60.Xr csh 1 , 61then commands executed with ``&'' are automatically immune to hangup 62signals while in the background. 63.Pp 64.Nm Nice 65is built into 66.Xr csh 1 67with a slightly different syntax than described here. The form 68``nice +10'' nices to positive nice, and ``nice \-10'' can be used 69by the super-user to give a process more of the processor. 70