GETPRIORITY(2) BSD System Calls Manual GETPRIORITY(2)
NAME
getpriority, setpriority -- get/set program scheduling priority
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/time.h>
#include <sys/resource.h>
int
getpriority(int which, int who);
int
setpriority(int which, int who, int prio);
DESCRIPTION
The scheduling priority of the process, process group, or user, as indicated by which and who is obtained with the getpriority() system call
and set with the setpriority() system call. The which argument is one of PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or PRIO_USER, and who is interpreted rela-
tive to which (a process identifier for PRIO_PROCESS, process group identifier for PRIO_PGRP, and a user ID for PRIO_USER). A zero value of
who denotes the current process, process group, or user. The prio argument is a value in the range -20 to 20. The default priority is 0;
lower priorities cause more favorable scheduling.
The getpriority() system call returns the highest priority (lowest numerical value) enjoyed by any of the specified processes. The
setpriority() system call sets the priorities of all of the specified processes to the specified value. Only the super-user may lower prior-
ities.
RETURN VALUES
Since getpriority() can legitimately return the value -1, it is necessary to clear the external variable errno prior to the call, then check
it afterward to determine if a -1 is an error or a legitimate value.
The setpriority() function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise the value -1 is returned and the global variable errno is set to
indicate the error.
ERRORS
The getpriority() and setpriority() system calls will fail if:
[ESRCH] No process was located using the which and who values specified.
[EINVAL] The which argument was not one of PRIO_PROCESS, PRIO_PGRP, or PRIO_USER.
In addition to the errors indicated above, setpriority() will fail if:
[EPERM] A process was located, but neither its effective nor real user ID matched the effective user ID of the caller.
[EACCES] A non super-user attempted to lower a process priority.
SEE ALSO
nice(1), fork(2), renice(8)
HISTORY
The getpriority() system call appeared in 4.2BSD.
BSD
June 4, 1993 BSD