xref: /freebsd/usr.sbin/rtprio/rtprio.1 (revision 580744621f33383027108364dcadad718df46ffe)
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2.\" Copyright (c) 1994, Henrik Vestergaard Draboel
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31.\" $FreeBSD$
32.\"
33.Dd September 29, 2012
34.Dt RTPRIO 1
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm rtprio ,
38.Nm idprio
39.Nd execute, examine or modify a utility's or process's realtime
40or idletime scheduling priority
41.Sh SYNOPSIS
42.Nm [id|rt]prio
43.Nm [id|rt]prio
44.Oo Fl Oc Ns Ar pid
45.Nm [id|rt]prio
46.Ar priority
47.Ar command
48.Op args
49.Nm [id|rt]prio
50.Ar priority
51.Fl Ar pid
52.Nm [id|rt]prio
53.Fl t
54.Ar command
55.Op args
56.Nm [id|rt]prio
57.Fl t
58.Fl Ar pid
59.Sh DESCRIPTION
60The
61.Nm
62utility is used for controlling realtime process scheduling.
63.Pp
64The
65.Nm idprio
66utility is used for controlling idletime process scheduling, and can be called
67with the same options as
68.Nm .
69.Pp
70A process with a realtime priority is not subject to priority
71degradation, and will only be preempted by another process of equal or
72higher realtime priority.
73.Pp
74A process with an idle priority will run only when no other
75process is runnable and then only if its idle priority is equal or
76greater than all other runnable idle priority processes.
77.Pp
78Both
79.Nm
80or
81.Nm idprio
82when called without arguments will return the realtime priority
83of the current process.
84.Pp
85If
86.Nm
87is called with 1 argument, it will return the realtime priority
88of the process with the specified
89.Ar pid .
90.Pp
91If
92.Ar priority
93is specified, the process or program is run at that realtime priority.
94If
95.Fl t
96is specified, the process or program is run as a normal (non-realtime)
97process.
98.Pp
99If
100.Ar -pid
101is specified, the process with the process identifier
102.Ar pid
103will be modified, else if
104.Ar command
105is specified, that program is run with its arguments.
106.Pp
107.Ar Priority
108is an integer between 0 and RTP_PRIO_MAX (usually 31).
1090 is the
110highest priority
111.Pp
112.Ar Pid
113of 0 means "the current process".
114.Pp
115Only root is allowed to set realtime or idle priority for a process.
116A user may modify the idle priority of their own processes if the
117.Xr sysctl 8
118variable
119.Va security.bsd.unprivileged_idprio
120is set to non-zero.
121Note that this increases the chance that a deadlock can occur
122if a process locks a required resource and then does
123not get to run.
124.Sh EXIT STATUS
125If
126.Nm
127execute a command, the exit value is that of the command executed.
128In all other cases,
129.Nm
130exits 0 on success, and 1 for all other errors.
131.Sh EXAMPLES
132To see which realtime priority the current process is at:
133.Dl rtprio
134.Pp
135To see which realtime priority of process 1423:
136.Dl "rtprio 1423"
137.Pp
138To run
139.Xr cron 8
140at the lowest realtime priority:
141.Dl "rtprio 31 cron"
142.Pp
143To change the realtime priority of process 1423 to 16:
144.Dl "rtprio 16 -1423"
145.Pp
146To run
147.Xr tcpdump 1
148without realtime priority:
149.Dl "rtprio -t tcpdump"
150.Pp
151To change the realtime priority of process 1423
152to
153.Dv RTP_PRIO_NORMAL
154(non-realtime/normal priority):
155.Dl "rtprio -t -1423"
156.Pp
157To make depend while not disturbing other machine usage:
158.Dl "idprio 31 make depend"
159.Sh SEE ALSO
160.Xr nice 1 ,
161.Xr ps 1 ,
162.Xr rtprio 2 ,
163.Xr setpriority 2 ,
164.Xr nice 3 ,
165.Xr renice 8
166.Sh HISTORY
167The
168.Nm
169utility appeared in
170.Fx 2.0 ,
171but is similar to the HP-UX version.
172.Sh AUTHORS
173.An -nosplit
174.An Henrik Vestergaard Draboel Aq Mt hvd@terry.ping.dk
175is the original author.
176This
177implementation in
178.Fx
179was substantially rewritten by
180.An David Greenman .
181.Sh CAVEATS
182You can lock yourself out of the system by placing a cpu-heavy
183process in a realtime priority.
184.Sh BUGS
185There is no way to set/view the realtime priority of process 0
186(swapper) (see
187.Xr ps 1 ) .
188.Pp
189There is in
190.Fx
191no way to ensure that a process page is present in memory therefore
192the process may be stopped for pagein (see
193.Xr mprotect 2 ,
194.Xr madvise 2 ) .
195.Pp
196Under
197.Fx
198system calls are currently never preempted, therefore non-realtime
199processes can starve realtime processes, or idletime processes can
200starve normal priority processes.
201