1.\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993 2.\" The Regents of the University of California. 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.\" @(#)nice.1 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/6/93 33.\" $FreeBSD$ 34.\" 35.Dd June 6, 1993 36.Dt NICE 1 37.Os 38.Sh NAME 39.Nm nice 40.Nd execute a command at a low scheduling priority 41.Sh SYNOPSIS 42.Nm 43.Op Fl Ns Ar number 44.Ar command 45.Op Ar arguments 46.Sh DESCRIPTION 47The 48.Nm 49utility runs 50.Ar command 51at a low priority. 52(Think of low and slow). 53If 54.Fl Ns Ar number 55is not given, 56.Nm 57assumes the value 10. 58The priority is a value in the range -20 to 20. 59The default priority is 0, priority 20 is the lowest possible. 60The 61.Nm 62utility will execute 63.Ar command 64at priority 65.Ar number 66relative to the priority 67of 68.Nm . 69Higher priorities than the 70current process priority can only requested by the 71super-user. 72Negative numbers are expressed as 73.Fl - Ns Ar number . 74.Pp 75The returned exit status is the exit value from the 76command executed by 77.Nm . 78.Pp 79Some shells may provide a builtin 80.Nm 81command which is similar or identical to this utility. 82Consult the 83.Xr builtin 1 84manual page. 85.Sh EXAMPLES 86$ nice -5 date 87.Pp 88Execute command 89.Sq date 90at priority 5 assuming the priority of the 91shell is 0. 92.Pp 93# nice -16 nice --35 date 94.Pp 95Execute command 96.Sq date 97at priority -19 assuming the priority of the 98shell is 0 and you are the super-user. 99.Sh SEE ALSO 100.Xr builtin 1 , 101.Xr csh 1 , 102.Xr idprio 1 , 103.Xr rtprio 1 , 104.Xr getpriority 2 , 105.Xr setpriority 2 , 106.Xr renice 8 107.Sh HISTORY 108A 109.Nm 110command appeared in 111.At v6 . 112