Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!n3dmc!johnl
From: johnl@n3dmc.UUCP (John Limpert)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.microport
Subject: Re: nice --n is broken in SYS V/AT 2.3 and predecessors
Message-ID: <353@n3dmc.UUCP>
Date: 11 Jun 88 14:12:20 GMT
References: <2099@sugar.UUCP>
Reply-To: johnl@n3dmc.UUCP (John Limpert)
Organization: N3DMC, Silver Spring, Maryland
Lines: 18

In article <2099@sugar.UUCP> karl@sugar.UUCP (Karl Lehenbauer) writes:
>According to my AT&T System V User's Manual, the super-user may run
>commands with priority higher than normal by using a negative increment,
>e.g., nice --2
>
>It doesn't work.  Nice bombs, saying 'Badly formed number'

It does work.  Just tried it on Microport System V/AT 2.3.  You are
probably trying to do this with /bin/csh.  The nice command is built
into the C shell and the syntax is different.  The C shell version
of "nice --20 foo" is "nice +20 foo".  It would have been nice if they
had kept compatibility with the old syntax.  You can also use
"/bin/nice --20 foo" with either shell.

-- 
John A. Limpert
UUCP:	johnl@n3dmc.UUCP	uunet!n3dmc!johnl
PACKET:	n3dmc@n3dmc.ampr.org	n3dmc@wa3pxx