nice — Run a command at a different priority
Format
nice [–n number] command-line nice [–number] command-line
tcsh shell: nice [+number] [command]
Description
nice runs a command at a different priority than usual. Normally, nice lowers the current priority by 10.
The command-line must invoke a single utility command, without using compound commands, pipelines, command substitution, and other special structures.
In the
tcsh shell, nice sets the scheduling priority
for the tcsh shell to number, or, without number,
to 4. With command, nice runs command at
the appropriate priority. The greater the number, the less cpu the
process gets. The super-user may specify negative priority by using:
nice -number …
command is
always executed in a subshell, and the restrictions placed on commands
in simple if statements apply. See tcsh — Invoke a C shell.Options
- –n number
- Lowers the current priority by number. On systems supporting
higher priorities, a user with appropriate privileges can use nice to
increase priority by specifying a negative value for number.
For example,
runs the command with an increased priority of 3.nice –n –3 command
- –number
- Is an obsolete version of –n number.
Localization
nice uses
the following localization environment variables:
- LANG
- LC_ALL
- LC_CTYPE
- LC_MESSAGES
- NLSPATH
See Localization for more information.
Exit values
If nice invokes
the command-line, it exits with the exit status returned by command-line; otherwise
its exit status is one of the following:
- 1-125
- An error occurred in the nice utility.
- 126
- nice could not invoke command-line.
- 127
- nice could not find the utility specified in command-line.
Portability
POSIX.2 User Portability Extension, X/Open Portability Guide, UNIX systems.
Related information
nohup, renice, tcsh