getpriority2

Usage

#include <sys/resource.h>

Library

Standard C library (libc, -lc)

Overview

The scheduling priority of the process, process group, or user, as indicated by which and who is obtained with the getpriority() call and set with the setpriority() call. The process attribute dealt with by these system calls is the same attribute (also known as the "nice" value) that is dealt with by nice(2).

The value 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 for who denotes (respectively) the calling process, the process group of the calling process, or the real user ID of the calling process.

The prio argument is a value in the range -20 to 19 (but see NOTES below), with -20 being the highest priority and 19 being the lowest priority. Attempts to set a priority outside this range are silently clamped to the range. The default priority is 0; lower values give a process a higher scheduling priority.

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.

Traditionally, only a privileged process could lower the nice value (i.e., set a higher priority). However, since Linux 2.6.12, an unprivileged process can decrease the nice value of a target process that has a suitable RLIMIT_NICE soft limit; see getrlimit(2) for details.

Return value

On success, getpriority() returns the calling thread's nice value, which may be a negative number. On error, it returns -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.

Since a successful call to getpriority() can legitimately return the value -1, it is necessary to clear errno prior to the call, then check errno afterward to determine if -1 is an error or a legitimate value.

setpriority() returns 0 on success. On failure, it returns -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.

Errors

EACCES

The caller attempted to set a lower nice value (i.e., a higher process priority), but did not have the required privilege (on Linux: did not have the CAP_SYS_NICE capability).

EINVAL

which was not one of PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or PRIO_USER.

EPERM

A process was located, but its effective user ID did not match either the effective or the real user ID of the caller, and was not privileged (on Linux: did not have the CAP_SYS_NICE capability). But see HISTORY below.

ESRCH

No process was located using the which and who values specified.

Notes

For further details on the nice value, see sched(7).

Note: the addition of the "autogroup" feature in Linux 2.6.38 means that the nice value no longer has its traditional effect in many circumstances. For details, see sched(7).

A child created by fork(2) inherits its parent's nice value. The nice value is preserved across execve(2).