GETPRIORITY(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual GETPRIORITY(3P)PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
getpriority, setpriority — get and set the nice value
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/resource.h>
int getpriority(int which, id_t who);
int setpriority(int which, id_t who, int value);
DESCRIPTION
The getpriority() function shall obtain the nice value of a process,
process group, or user. The setpriority() function shall set the nice
value of a process, process group, or user to value+{NZERO}.
Target processes are specified by the values of the which and who argu‐
ments. The which argument may be one of the following values:
PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or PRIO_USER, indicating that the who argument
is to be interpreted as a process ID, a process group ID, or an effec‐
tive user ID, respectively. A 0 value for the who argument specifies
the current process, process group, or user.
The nice value set with setpriority() shall be applied to the process.
If the process is multi-threaded, the nice value shall affect all sys‐
tem scope threads in the process.
If more than one process is specified, getpriority() shall return value
{NZERO} less than the lowest nice value pertaining to any of the speci‐
fied processes, and setpriority() shall set the nice values of all of
the specified processes to value+{NZERO}.
The default nice value is {NZERO}; lower nice values shall cause more
favorable scheduling. While the range of valid nice values is
[0,{NZERO}*2−1], implementations may enforce more restrictive limits.
If value+{NZERO} is less than the system's lowest supported nice value,
setpriority() shall set the nice value to the lowest supported value;
if value+{NZERO} is greater than the system's highest supported nice
value, setpriority() shall set the nice value to the highest supported
value.
Only a process with appropriate privileges can lower its nice value.
Any processes or threads using SCHED_FIFO or SCHED_RR shall be unaf‐
fected by a call to setpriority(). This is not considered an error. A
process which subsequently reverts to SCHED_OTHER need not have its
priority affected by such a setpriority() call.
The effect of changing the nice value may vary depending on the
process-scheduling algorithm in effect.
Since getpriority() can return the value −1 upon successful completion,
it is necessary to set errno to 0 prior to a call to getpriority(). If
getpriority() returns the value −1, then errno can be checked to see if
an error occurred or if the value is a legitimate nice value.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, getpriority() shall return an integer in
the range −{NZERO} to {NZERO}−1. Otherwise, −1 shall be returned and
errno set to indicate the error.
Upon successful completion, setpriority() shall return 0; otherwise, −1
shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The getpriority() and setpriority() functions shall fail if:
ESRCH No process could be located using the which and who argument
values specified.
EINVAL The value of the which argument was not recognized, or the value
of the who argument is not a valid process ID, process group ID,
or user ID.
In addition, setpriority() may fail if:
EPERM A process was located, but neither the real nor effective user
ID of the executing process match the effective user ID of the
process whose nice value is being changed.
EACCES A request was made to change the nice value to a lower numeric
value and the current process does not have appropriate privi‐
leges.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Using getpriority()
The following example returns the current scheduling priority for the
process ID returned by the call to getpid().
#include <sys/resource.h>
...
int which = PRIO_PROCESS;
id_t pid;
int ret;
pid = getpid();
ret = getpriority(which, pid);
Using setpriority()
The following example sets the priority for the current process ID to
−20.
#include <sys/resource.h>
...
int which = PRIO_PROCESS;
id_t pid;
int priority = -20;
int ret;
pid = getpid();
ret = setpriority(which, pid, priority);
APPLICATION USAGE
The getpriority() and setpriority() functions work with an offset nice
value (nice value −{NZERO}). The nice value is in the range
[0,2*{NZERO} −1], while the return value for getpriority() and the
third parameter for setpriority() are in the range [−{NZERO},{NZERO}
−1].
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSOnice(), sched_get_priority_max(), sched_setscheduler()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <sys_resource.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker‐
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 GETPRIORITY(3P)
