1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" 5.\" %sccs.include.redist.roff% 6.\" 7.\" @(#)nice.1 6.7 (Berkeley) 07/24/91 8.\" 9.Dd 10.Dt NICE 1 11.Os BSD 4 12.Sh NAME 13.Nm nice 14.Nd execute a command at a low scheduling priority 15.Sh SYNOPSIS 16.Nm nice 17.Op Fl Ns Ar number 18.Ar command 19.Op Ar arguments 20.Sh DESCRIPTION 21.Nm Nice 22runs 23.Ar command 24at a low priority. 25(Think of low and slow). 26If 27.Fl Ns Ar number 28is specified, and if it is greater than or equal 29to 10 (the default), 30.Nm nice 31will execute 32.Ar command 33at that priority. 34The upper bound, or lowest priority that 35.Nm nice 36will run a command is 20. 37The lower bounds or 38higher priorities (integers less than 10) 39can only be requested by the super-user. 40Negative numbers are expressed as 41.Fl - Ns Ar number . 42.Pp 43The returned exit status is the exit value from the 44command executed by 45.Nm nice . 46.Sh SEE ALSO 47.Xr csh 1 , 48.Xr renice 8 49.Sh HISTORY 50A 51.Nm nice 52command appeared in 53.At v6 . 54.Sh BUGS 55.Nm Nice 56is particular to 57.Xr sh 1 . 58If you use 59.Xr csh 1 , 60then commands executed with ``&'' are automatically immune to hangup 61signals while in the background. 62.Pp 63.Nm Nice 64is built into 65.Xr csh 1 66with a slightly different syntax than described here. The form 67.Ql nice +10 68nices to positive nice, and 69.Ql nice \-10 70can be used 71by the super-user to give a process more of the processor. 72