Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!husc6!m2c!umvlsi!hegde
From: hegde@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu (Uday Hegde)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: Nicer than nice!
Keywords: nice,speed,unix,sysv,priority
Message-ID: <707@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu>
Date: 5 Feb 90 16:56:03 GMT
References: <9400@cat.UUCP> <1990Feb5.052345.2120@iwarp.intel.com>
Reply-To: hegde@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu (Uday Hegde)
Organization: University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Lines: 21

In article <1990Feb5.052345.2120@iwarp.intel.com> merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) writes:
>In article <9400@cat.UUCP>, ad@cat (Axel Dunkel) writes:
>> Is there a possibility to change the priority of a process more than a
>> 'nice -19' would do? I would like be able to start programs in background

>Nice isn't really a "priority" (the manpage lies) -- just a "hint" to
>the scheduler.  There isn't anything in off-the-shelf UNIX that tags
>the process as "don't run this unless nobody else is doing much of
>anything."
>

Nice value of 19 does achieve this. 19 is a special process "priority" and the
process with that nice value runs only when nothing else in the system 
wants to.
Correct me if I wrong.

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Uday Hegde.                          internet: hegde@cs.umass.edu         
UMass, Amherst.                                hegde@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu
Phone: 545-3899                       bitnet:  hegde@umass.bitnet    
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