Hi there,

I wrote a script that scans a folder for new files.
I don't want to run it at specific times but only when the computer is NOT busy.

I tried to use nice but it doesn't really work. I mean, even if my process has less priority, it still slows down the other processes. I did a test to check that. The following command creates a dummy file of 256 MB:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=dummy bs=1048576 count=256 2> /dev/null

It lasts 20 seconds

If I run this command two times at the same time, one in normal mode, the other one with nice, I get the following times:
normal=35 seconds
niced=45 seconds

What I'm trying to do is that one command runs without being slowed down and the other command simply waits untill it can run without slowing down other processes.

Am I clear enough? Don't hesitate to ask for more information if you can help me.

Thanks in advance
Santiago