NAME

nice − set program priority

SYNOPSIS

(nice = 34.) 
(priority in r0)
sys nice nice(priority)

DESCRIPTION

The scheduling priority of the process is changed to the argument.  Positive priorities get less service than normal; 0 is default.  Only the super-user may specify a negative priority.  The valid range of priority is 20 to −220.  The value of 4 is recommended to users who wish to execute long-running programs without flak from the administration.  The effect of this call is passed to a child process by the fork system call.  The effect can be cancelled by another call to nice with a priority of 0.  The actual running priority of a process is the priority argument plus a number that ranges from 100 to 119 depending on the cpu usage of the process. 

SEE ALSO

nice (I)

DIAGNOSTICS

The error bit (c-bit) is set if the user requests a priority outside the range of 0 to 20 and is not the super-user.