Using nice to control CPU usage and process priority<\/p>\n
If you wish to run a command which typically uses a lot of CPU (for example, running tar on a large file), then you probably don\u2019t want to bog down your whole system with it. Linux systems provide the nice command to control your process priority at runtime, or renice to change the priority of an already running process. The full manpage has help, but the command if very easy to use:
\n<\/p>\n
\n$ nice -n prioritylevel \/command\/to\/run\n<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n
The priority level runs from -20 (top priority) to 19 (lowest). For example, to run tar and gzip at a the lowest priority level:
\n<\/p>\n\n$ nice -n 19 tar -czvf file.tar.gz bigfiletocompress\n<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n
similarly, if you have a process running, use ps to find the process ID, and then use renice to change it\u2019s priority level:
\n<\/p>\n\n$ renice -n 19 -p 987 32\n<\/pre>\n<\/p>\n
This would change processes 987 and 32 to priority level 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Using nice to control CPU usage and process priority If you wish to run a command which typically uses a lot of CPU (for example, running tar on a large file), then you probably don\u2019t want to bog down your whole system with it. Linux systems provide the nice command to control your process priority… <\/p>\n