Process Priority

Question 1

What does process priority control?

Answer 1

How aggressively a process competes for CPU time.

Question 2

What is niceness in Linux?

Answer 2

A value that influences process scheduling priority.

Question 3

What is the range of niceness values?

Answer 3

From -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority).

Question 4

What does the nice command do?

Answer 4

Sets the initial niceness value when launching a process.

Question 5

Syntax for nice command?

Answer 5

nice [-n adjustment] command [arguments…]

Question 6

Example of nice command?

Answer 6

nice -n 15 tar -czf /srv/backups/home-$(date +%F).tgz /home

Question 7

What does -n 15 mean in nice command?

Answer 7

Sets niceness to 15.

Question 8

What does tar -czf do?

Answer 8

Creates a compressed archive.

Question 9

What is /srv/backups/home-$(date +%F).tgz?

Answer 9

The output archive file.

Question 10

What directory is being backed up in the example?

Answer 10

/home.

Question 11

How to monitor niceness of a process?

Answer 11

Use ps -o pid,ni,cmd -C tar.

Question 12

Example output of ps command?

Answer 12

10234 15 tar -czf /srv/backups/home-2025-04-30.tgz /home

Question 13

What does the renice command do?

Answer 13

Modifies niceness value of an already running process.

Question 14

What privilege is required to raise priority?

Answer 14

Super-user privileges.

Question 15

Syntax for renice command?

Answer 15

renice [-n adjustment] { -p pid | -g pgid | -u user }

Question 16

Example of renice command?

Answer 16

sudo renice -n -5 -p 10234

Question 17

What does sudo do in renice example?

Answer 17

Grants super-user privileges.

Question 18

What does -n -5 mean in renice command?

Answer 18

Sets new niceness value 5 points higher in priority.

Question 19

What does -p 10234 mean in renice command?

Answer 19

Targets process ID 10234.

Question 20

Example output of renice command?

Answer 20

10234 old priority 15, new priority 10.