[unix-history] / usr / src / usr.bin / renice / renice.8

.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
.\"    must display the following acknowledgement:
.\"	This product includes software developed by the University of
.\"	California, Berkeley and its contributors.
.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\"    without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\"     @(#)renice.8	6.5 (Berkeley) 3/16/91
.\"
.Dd March 16, 1991
.Dt RENICE 8
.Os BSD 4
.Sh NAME
.Nm renice
.Nd alter priority of running processes
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm renice
.Ar priority
.Oo
.Op Fl p
.Ar pid ...
.Oc
.Oo
.Op Fl g
.Ar pgrp ...
.Oc
.Oo
.Op Fl u
.Ar user ...
.Oc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm Renice
alters the 
scheduling priority of one or more running processes.
The following
.Ar who
parameters are interpreted as process ID's, process group
ID's, or user names.
.Nm Renice Ns 'ing
a process group causes all processes in the process group
to have their scheduling priority altered.  
.Nm Renice Ns 'ing
a user causes all processes owned by the user to have
their scheduling priority altered.
By default, the processes to be affected are specified by
their process ID's.
.Pp
Options supported by
.Nm renice :
.Bl -tag -width Ds
.It Fl g
Force 
.Ar who
parameters to be interpreted as process group ID's.
.It Fl u
Force the
.Ar who
parameters to be interpreted as user names.
.It Fl p
Resets the
.Ar who
interpretation to be (the default) process ID's.
.El
.Pp
For example,
.Bd -literal -offset
renice +1 987 -u daemon root -p 32
.Ed
.Pp
would change the priority of process ID's 987 and 32, and
all processes owned by users daemon and root.
.Pp
Users other than the super-user may only alter the priority of
processes they own,
and can only monotonically increase their ``nice value''
within the range 0 to
.Dv PRIO_MAX
(20).
(This prevents overriding administrative fiats.)
The super-user
may alter the priority of any process
and set the priority to any value in the range
.Dv PRIO_MIN
(\-20)
to
.Dv PRIO_MAX .
Useful priorities are:
20 (the affected processes will run only when nothing else
in the system wants to),
0 (the ``base'' scheduling priority),
anything negative (to make things go very fast).
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width /etc/passwd -compact
.It Pa /etc/passwd
to map user names to user ID's
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr getpriority 2 ,
.Xr setpriority 2
.Sh BUGS
Non super-users can not increase scheduling priorities of their own processes,
even if they were the ones that decreased the priorities in the first place.
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.0 .
Commit	Line	Data
fe8fff3d WJ	1	.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
	2	.\" All rights reserved.
	3	.\"
	4	.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
	5	.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
	6	.\" are met:
	7	.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
	8	.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
	9	.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
	10	.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
	11	.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
	12	.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
	13	.\" must display the following acknowledgement:
	14	.\" This product includes software developed by the University of
	15	.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
	16	.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
	17	.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
	18	.\" without specific prior written permission.
	19	.\"
	20	.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
	21	.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
	22	.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
	23	.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
	24	.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
	25	.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
	26	.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
	27	.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
	28	.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
	29	.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
	30	.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
	31	.\"
	32	.\" @(#)renice.8 6.5 (Berkeley) 3/16/91
	33	.\"
	34	.Dd March 16, 1991
	35	.Dt RENICE 8
	36	.Os BSD 4
	37	.Sh NAME
	38	.Nm renice
	39	.Nd alter priority of running processes
	40	.Sh SYNOPSIS
	41	.Nm renice
	42	.Ar priority
	43	.Oo
	44	.Op Fl p
	45	.Ar pid ...
	46	.Oc
	47	.Oo
	48	.Op Fl g
	49	.Ar pgrp ...
	50	.Oc
	51	.Oo
	52	.Op Fl u
	53	.Ar user ...
	54	.Oc
	55	.Sh DESCRIPTION
	56	.Nm Renice
	57	alters the
	58	scheduling priority of one or more running processes.
	59	The following
	60	.Ar who
	61	parameters are interpreted as process ID's, process group
	62	ID's, or user names.
	63	.Nm Renice Ns 'ing
	64	a process group causes all processes in the process group
65	to have their scheduling priority altered.
66	.Nm Renice Ns 'ing
67	a user causes all processes owned by the user to have
68	their scheduling priority altered.
69	By default, the processes to be affected are specified by
70	their process ID's.
71	.Pp
72	Options supported by
73	.Nm renice :
74	.Bl -tag -width Ds
75	.It Fl g
76	Force
77	.Ar who
78	parameters to be interpreted as process group ID's.
79	.It Fl u
80	Force the
81	.Ar who
82	parameters to be interpreted as user names.
83	.It Fl p
84	Resets the
85	.Ar who
86	interpretation to be (the default) process ID's.
87	.El
88	.Pp
89	For example,
90	.Bd -literal -offset
91	renice +1 987 -u daemon root -p 32
92	.Ed
93	.Pp
94	would change the priority of process ID's 987 and 32, and
95	all processes owned by users daemon and root.
96	.Pp
97	Users other than the super-user may only alter the priority of
98	processes they own,
99	and can only monotonically increase their ``nice value''
100	within the range 0 to
101	.Dv PRIO_MAX
102	(20).
103	(This prevents overriding administrative fiats.)
104	The super-user
105	may alter the priority of any process
106	and set the priority to any value in the range
107	.Dv PRIO_MIN
108	(\-20)
109	to
110	.Dv PRIO_MAX .
111	Useful priorities are:
112	20 (the affected processes will run only when nothing else
113	in the system wants to),
114	0 (the ``base'' scheduling priority),
115	anything negative (to make things go very fast).
116	.Sh FILES
117	.Bl -tag -width /etc/passwd -compact
118	.It Pa /etc/passwd
119	to map user names to user ID's
120	.El
121	.Sh SEE ALSO
122	.Xr getpriority 2 ,
123	.Xr setpriority 2
124	.Sh BUGS
125	Non super-users can not increase scheduling priorities of their own processes,
126	even if they were the ones that decreased the priorities in the first place.
127	.Sh HISTORY
128	The
129	.Nm
130	command appeared in
131	.Bx 4.0 .