xref: /freebsd-12.1/lib/libc/sys/getpriority.2 (revision dfd1ff19)
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32.\"     @(#)getpriority.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd June 4, 1993
36.Dt GETPRIORITY 2
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm getpriority ,
40.Nm setpriority
41.Nd get/set program scheduling priority
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.In sys/time.h
46.In sys/resource.h
47.Ft int
48.Fn getpriority "int which" "int who"
49.Ft int
50.Fn setpriority "int which" "int who" "int prio"
51.Sh DESCRIPTION
52The scheduling
53priority of the process, process group, or user, as indicated by
54.Fa which
55and
56.Fa who
57is obtained with the
58.Fn getpriority
59system call and set with the
60.Fn setpriority
61system call.
62The
63.Fa which
64argument
65is one of
66.Dv PRIO_PROCESS ,
67.Dv PRIO_PGRP ,
68or
69.Dv PRIO_USER ,
70and
71.Fa who
72is interpreted relative to
73.Fa which
74(a process identifier for
75.Dv PRIO_PROCESS ,
76process group
77identifier for
78.Dv PRIO_PGRP ,
79and a user ID for
80.Dv PRIO_USER ) .
81A zero value of
82.Fa who
83denotes the current process, process group, or user.
84The
85.Fa prio
86argument
87is a value in the range -20 to 20.
88The default priority is 0;
89lower priorities cause more favorable scheduling.
90.Pp
91The
92.Fn getpriority
93system call returns the highest priority (lowest numerical value)
94enjoyed by any of the specified processes.
95The
96.Fn setpriority
97system call sets the priorities of all of the specified processes
98to the specified value.
99Only the super-user may lower priorities.
100.Sh RETURN VALUES
101Since
102.Fn getpriority
103can legitimately return the value -1, it is necessary
104to clear the external variable
105.Va errno
106prior to the
107call, then check it afterward to determine
108if a -1 is an error or a legitimate value.
109.Pp
110.Rv -std setpriority
111.Sh ERRORS
112The
113.Fn getpriority
114and
115.Fn setpriority
116system calls
117will fail if:
118.Bl -tag -width Er
119.It Bq Er ESRCH
120No process was located using the
121.Fa which
122and
123.Fa who
124values specified.
125.It Bq Er EINVAL
126The
127.Fa which
128argument
129was not one of
130.Dv PRIO_PROCESS ,
131.Dv PRIO_PGRP ,
132or
133.Dv PRIO_USER .
134.El
135.Pp
136.Bl -tag -width Er
137In addition to the errors indicated above,
138.Fn setpriority
139will fail if:
140.It Bq Er EPERM
141A process was located, but neither its effective nor real user
142ID matched the effective user ID of the caller.
143.It Bq Er EACCES
144A non super-user attempted to lower a process priority.
145.El
146.Sh SEE ALSO
147.Xr nice 1 ,
148.Xr fork 2 ,
149.Xr renice 8
150.Sh HISTORY
151The
152.Fn getpriority
153system call appeared in
154.Bx 4.2 .
155