NAME

nice − change priority of a process

SYNOPSIS

int nice (incr)
int incr;

DESCRIPTION

nice adds the value of incr to the nice value of the calling process.  A process’s nice value is a non-negative number for which a more positive value results in lower CPU priority. 

A maximum nice value of 39 and a minimum nice value of 0 are imposed by the system.  (The default nice value is 20.)  Requests for values above or below these limits result in the nice value being set to the corresponding limit. 

­[EPERM] nice fails and does not change the nice value if incr is negative or greater than 39 and the effective user ID of the calling process is not super-user. 

SEE ALSO

exec(2), nice(1)

DIAGNOSTICS

Upon successful completion, nice returns the new nice value minus 20.  Otherwise, a value of −1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. 

September 02, 1992