Alters the nice value of running processes.
renice [ -n Increment ] [ -g | -p | -u ] ID ...
The renice command alters the nice value of one or more running processes. The nice value is the decimal value of the system scheduling priority of a process. By default, the processes affected are specified by their process IDs. When you specify a process group, the request applies to all processes in the process group.
The nice value is determined in an implementation-dependent manner. If the requested increment raises or lowers the nice value of the executed utility beyond implementation-dependent limits, the limit whose value was exceed is used.
If you do not have root user authority, you can only reset the priority of processes you own and can only increase their priority within the range of 0 to 20, with 20 being the lowest priority. If you have root user authority, you can alter the priority of any process and set the priority to any value in the range -20 to 20. The specified Increment changes the priority of a process in the following ways:
The renice command maps these values to those actually used by the kernel.
Notes:
- If you do not have root user authority, you cannot increase the nice value of processes (even if you had originally decreased their priorities).
- You cannot use the renice command to change a process to run at a constant priority. To do this, use the setpriority system call.
This command returns the following exit values:
0 | Successful completion |
>0 | An error occurred. |
renice -n 5 -p 987 32
renice -n -4 -g 324 76
renice -n 4 -u 8 sas
/usr/sbin/renice | Contains the renice command. |
/etc/passwd | Maps user names to user IDs. |
The nice command.
The getpriority system call, setpriority system call.
The Commands Overview in AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices describes how commands are processed.
The Processes Overview in AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices discusses what processes are and input and output redirection.
The Shells Overview in AIX Version 4.3 System User's Guide: Operating System and Devices describes what shells are, the different types of shells, and how shells affect the way commands are interpreted.
Controlling Contention for the CPU in AIX Versions 3.2 and 4 Performance Tuning Guide.