NAME

nice − run a command at low priority

SYNOPSIS

nice [−increment] command [arguments]

DESCRIPTION

nice executes command with a lower CPU scheduling priority.  If the increment argument (in the range 1-19) is given, it is used; if not, an increment of 10 is assumed. 

Users who have with appropriate privileges can run commands with priority higher than normal by using a negative increment; e.g., −−10. 

An increment larger than 19 is treated as equivalent to 19. 

EXTERNAL INFLUENCES

International Code Set Support

Single- and multi-byte character code sets are supported. 

DIAGNOSTICS

nice returns the exit status of the subject command. 

WARNINGS

nice is built into csh(1) with a slightly different syntax than described here. The form nice +10 nices to positive nice, and nice −10 can be used by users who have appropriate privileges to give a process a larger share of processing resources. 

SEE ALSO

nohup(1), nice(2). 

STANDARDS CONFORMANCE

nice: SVID2

Hewlett-Packard Company  —  HP-UX Release 8.05: June 1991