Manual pages › General commands (1)
nice-original(1)
run a command at low priority
From the original Amiga UNIX 2.1 manual. Some things it mentions may not be in this release.
With the coreutil package (with the extra set), see nice(1) instead.
Also by this name: nice(2), System calls · nice(3B), BSD C library
NAME
nice - run a command at low priority
SYNOPSIS
nice [ -increment ] command [ arguments ]
DESCRIPTION
nice executes command with a lower CPU scheduling priority. The priocntl command is a more general interface to scheduler functions.
The invoking process (generally the user's shell) must be in the time-sharing scheduling class. The command is executed in the time-sharing class.
If the increment argument (in the range 1-19) is given, it is used; if not, an increment of 10 is assumed.
The super-user may run commands with priority higher than normal by using a negative increment, e.g., --10.
SEE ALSO
nohup(1), priocntl(1). nice(2) in the Programmer's Reference Manual.
DIAGNOSTICS
nice returns the exit status of command.
NOTES
An increment larger than 19 is equivalent to 19.