NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     nice - set program scheduling priority

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     nice(int incr);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     This interface is obsoleted by setpriority(2).

     The nice() function obtains the scheduling priority of the process from
     the system and sets it to the priority value specified in incr.  The priority
 is a value in the range -20 to 20.  The default priority is 0;
     lower priorities cause more favorable scheduling.  Only the super-user
     may lower priorities.

     Children inherit the priority of their parent processes via fork(2).

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

     Upon successful completition, nice() returns the new nice value minus
     NZERO.  Otherwise, -1 is returned, the process' nice value is not
     changed, and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The nice() function will fail if:

     [EPERM]            The incr argument is negative and the caller is not
                        the super-user.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     nice(1), fork(2), setpriority(2), renice(8)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The nice() function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4.2
     (``XPG4.2'').

HISTORY    [Toc]    [Back]

     A nice() syscall appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

BSD                            February 16, 1998                           BSD