[Tfug] Nice and Priority

Brian Murphy murphy+tfug at email.arizona.edu
Tue Feb 20 15:57:59 MST 2007


Quoting Felix Tilley <fetilley at earthlink.net>:
> Please explain the difference between nice and priority.


This was the second hit on google for "linux nice priority" so I
understand how you missed it. ;)


"The Linux kernel implements two separate priority ranges. The first is
the nice value, a number from ?20 to 19 with a default of zero.
Larger nice values correspond to a lower priority?you are being nice
to the other processes on the system. Processes with a lower nice value
(higher priority) run before processes with a higher nice value (lower
priority). The nice value also helps determine how long a timeslice the
process receives. A process with a nice value of ?20 receives the
maximum timeslice, whereas a process with a nice value of 19 receives
the minimum timeslice. Nice values are the standard priority range used
in all Unix systems.

The second range is the real-time priority, which will be discussed
later. By default, it ranges from zero to 99. All real-time processes
are at a higher priority than normal processes. Linux implements
real-time priorities in accordance with POSIX. Most modern Unix systems
implement a similar scheme."

Full article at
http://www.samspublishing.com/articles/article.asp?p=101760&rl=1

Brian


The opinions or statements expressed herein are my own and should not be
taken as a position, opinion, or endorsement of the University of
Arizona.






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