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'\" t
.\" Title: renice
.\" Author: [see the "AUTHOR(S)" section]
.\" Generator: Asciidoctor 2.0.20
.\" Date: 2026-02-17
.\" Manual: User Commands
.\" Source: util-linux 2.42-rc1
.\" Language: English
.\"
.TH "RENICE" "1" "2026-02-17" "util\-linux 2.42\-rc1" "User Commands"
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.SH "NAME"
renice \- alter priority of running processes
.SH "SYNOPSIS"
.sp
\fBrenice\fP [\fB\-n\fP|\fB\-\-priority\fP|\fB\-\-relative\fP] \fIpriority\fP [\fB\-g\fP|\fB\-p\fP|\fB\-u\fP] \fIidentifier\fP...
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.sp
\fBrenice\fP alters the scheduling priority of one or more running processes. The first argument is the \fIpriority\fP value to be used. The other arguments are interpreted as process IDs (by default), process group IDs, user IDs, or user names. \fBrenice\fP\*(Aqing a process group causes all processes in the process group to have their scheduling priority altered. \fBrenice\fP\*(Aqing a user causes all processes owned by the user to have their scheduling priority altered.
.sp
By default, \fIpriority\fP is understood as an absolute value. But when option \fB\-\-relative\fP is given,
or when option \fB\-n\fP is given and the environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT is set, then \fIpriority\fP
is understood as a relative value.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.sp
\fB\-n\fP \fIpriority\fP|\fIdelta\fP
.RS 4
Specify the absolute scheduling priority (when POSIXLY_CORRECT is not set) or a relative
priority (when POSIXLY_CORRECT \fBis\fP set). See \fBNOTES\fP below for more details.
Using option \fB\-n\fP is optional, but when used, it must be the first argument.
.RE
.sp
\fB\-\-priority\fP \fIpriority\fP
.RS 4
Specify the absolute scheduling \fIpriority\fP to be used.
This is the default, when no option is specified.
.RE
.sp
\fB\-\-relative\fP \fIdelta\fP
.RS 4
Specify a relative priority. The actual scheduling priority gets incremented/decremented
by the given \fIdelta\fP. (This is the same as the \fB\-n\fP option when POSIXLY_CORRECT is set.)
.RE
.sp
\fB\-g\fP, \fB\-\-pgrp\fP
.RS 4
Interpret the succeeding arguments as process group IDs.
.RE
.sp
\fB\-p\fP, \fB\-\-pid\fP
.RS 4
Interpret the succeeding arguments as process IDs (the default).
.RE
.sp
\fB\-u\fP, \fB\-\-user\fP
.RS 4
Interpret the succeeding arguments as usernames or UIDs.
.RE
.sp
\fB\-h\fP, \fB\-\-help\fP
.RS 4
Display help text and exit.
.RE
.sp
\fB\-V\fP, \fB\-\-version\fP
.RS 4
Display version and exit.
.RE
.SH "FILES"
.sp
\fI/etc/passwd\fP
.RS 4
to map user names to user IDs
.RE
.SH "NOTES"
.sp
Users other than the superuser may alter the priority only of processes they own.
Furthermore, an unprivileged user can only \fIincrease\fP the "nice value" (that is:
lower the urgency), and such changes are irreversible unless (since Linux 2.6.12)
the user has a suitable "nice" resource limit (see \fBgetrlimit\fP(2)).
.sp
The superuser may alter the priority of any process and set the priority to any value in the range \-20 to 19. Useful priorities are: 19 (the affected processes will run only when nothing else in the system wants to), 0 (the "base" scheduling priority), anything negative (to make things go very fast).
.sp
For historical reasons, the \fB\-n\fP option in this implementation does not follow the POSIX
specification: instead of setting a \fBrelative\fP priority, it sets an \fBabsolute\fP priority
by default. As this may not be desirable, this behavior can be changed by setting the
environment variable POSIXLY_CORRECT, to be fully POSIX compliant. See \fB\-\-relative\fP and
\fB\-\-priority\fP for options that do not change behavior depending on environment variables.
.SH "HISTORY"
.sp
The \fBrenice\fP command appeared in 4.0BSD.
.SH "EXAMPLE"
.sp
The following command changes the priority of the processes with PIDs 987 and 32, plus all processes owned by the users daemon and root:
.RS 3
.ll -.6i
.sp
\fBrenice +1 987 \-u daemon root \-p 32\fP
.br
.RE
.ll
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.sp
\fBnice\fP(1),
\fBchrt\fP(1),
\fBgetpriority\fP(2),
\fBsetpriority\fP(2),
\fBcredentials\fP(7),
\fBsched\fP(7)
.SH "REPORTING BUGS"
.sp
For bug reports, use the \c
.URL "https://github.com/util\-linux/util\-linux/issues" "issue tracker" "."
.SH "AVAILABILITY"
.sp
The \fBrenice\fP command is part of the util\-linux package which can be downloaded from \c
.URL "https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util\-linux/" "Linux Kernel Archive" "."
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