The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition
Copyright © 2001-2013 The IEEE and The Open Group

#### NAME

> getpriority, setpriority - get and set the nice value

#### SYNOPSIS

> ``[XSI] #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 arguments. 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 effective 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 system 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 specified 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.

> [PS|TPS] Any processes or threads using SCHED_FIFO or SCHED_RR shall be unaffected 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 privileges.

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 ALSO

> nice, sched_get_priority_max, sched_setscheduler

> XBD <sys/resource.h>

#### CHANGE HISTORY

> First released in Issue 4, Version 2.

#### Issue 5

> Moved from X/OPEN UNIX extension to BASE.

> The DESCRIPTION is reworded in terms of the nice value rather than priority to avoid confusion with functionality in the POSIX Realtime Extension.

End of informative text.

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