NAME
nice – execute a utility with an altered scheduling priority
SYNOPSIS
nice [-n increment] utility [argument ...]
DESCRIPTION
nice runs utility at an altered scheduling priority. If an increment is given, it is used; otherwise an increment of 10 is assumed. The superuser can run utilities with priorities higher than normal by using a negative increment. The priority can be adjusted over a range of -20 (the highest) to 20 (the lowest).
The options are as follows:
- -n increment
-
A positive or negative decimal integer used to modify the system scheduling priority of utility.
EXIT STATUS
The nice utility exits with one of the following values:
- 1-125
-
An error occurred.
- 126
-
The utility was found but could not be invoked.
- 127
-
The utility could not be found.
Otherwise, the exit status of nice shall be that of utility.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The nice utility is compliant with the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (“POSIX.1”) specification.
The historic -increment option has been deprecated but is still supported in this implementation.
nice also exists as a built-in to csh(1), though with a different syntax.
HISTORY
A nice utility appeared in Version 4 AT&T UNIX.