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 6.6 (Berkeley) 03/14/91 7.\" 8.Vx 9.Vx 10.Dd 11.Dt NICE 1 12.Os BSD 4 13.Sh NAME 14.Nm nice 15.Nd execute a command at a low scheduling priority 16.Sh SYNOPSIS 17.Nm nice 18.Oo 19.Op Fl Ar number 20.Oo 21.Ar command 22.Op Ar arguments 23.Sh DESCRIPTION 24.Nm Nice 25runs 26.Ar command 27at a low priority. 28(Think of low and slow). 29If 30.Ar \-number 31is specified, and if it is greater than or equal 32to 10 (the default), 33.Nm nice 34will execute 35.Ar command 36at that priority. 37The upper bound, or lowest priority that 38.Nm nice 39will run a command is 20. 40The lower bounds or 41higher priorities (integers less than 10) 42can only be requested by the super-user. 43Negative numbers are expressed as 44.Ar \-\-number. 45.Pp 46The returned exit status is the exit value from the 47command executed by 48.Nm nice . 49.Sh SEE ALSO 50.Xr csh 1 , 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