GETPRIORITY(2) BSD System Calls Manual GETPRIORITY(2)NAME
getpriority, setpriority — get/set program scheduling priority
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/resource.h>
int
getpriority(int which, int who);
int
setpriority(int which, int who, int prio);
DESCRIPTION
The scheduling priority of the process, process group, or user, as indi‐
cated by which and who is obtained with the getpriority() call and set
with the setpriority() call. Which is one of PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or
PRIO_USER, and who is interpreted relative to which (a process identifier
for PRIO_PROCESS, process group identifier for PRIO_PGRP, and a user ID
for PRIO_USER). A zero value of who denotes the current process, process
group, or user. Prio is a value in the range -20 to 20. The default
priority is 0; lower priorities cause more favorable scheduling.
The getpriority() call returns the highest priority (lowest numerical
value) enjoyed by any of the specified processes. The setpriority() call
sets the priorities of all of the specified processes to the specified
value. Only the super-user may lower priorities.
RETURN VALUES
Since getpriority() can legitimately return the value -1, it is necessary
to clear the external variable errno prior to the call, then check it
afterward to determine if a -1 is an error or a legitimate value.
The setpriority() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise
the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate
the error.
ERRORSGetpriority() and setpriority() will fail if:
[ESRCH] No process was located using the which and who values
specified.
[EINVAL] Which was not one of PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or
PRIO_USER.
In addition to the errors indicated above, setpriority() will fail if:
[EPERM] A process was located, but neither its effective nor
real user ID matched the effective user ID of the
caller.
[EACCES] A non super-user attempted to lower a process prior‐
ity.
SEE ALSOnice(1), fork(2), renice(8)HISTORY
The getpriority() function call appeared in 4.2BSD.
BSD June 4, 1993 BSD
