Viewing priority of different running processes in Linux, and how to change it ?

In this post, we will look various ways how to view priority of a linux process and how to change it.

1. Viewing Priority of Linux process

a. Using Top command

[root@nglinux ~]# top
top - 06:21:36 up  4:19,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 135 total,   1 running, 134 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,100.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    899192k total,   415420k used,   483772k free,    70460k buffers
Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,   166572k cached

  PID USER      PR  NI  VIRT  RES  SHR S %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                  
    1 root      20   0  2896 1436 1208 S  0.0  0.2   0:01.22 init                                                      
    2 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                                  
    3 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0                                               
    4 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 ksoftirqd/0                                               
    5 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 stopper/0                                                 
    6 root      RT   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.07 watchdog/0                                                
    7 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:04.74 events/0                                                  
    8 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 events/0                                                  
    9 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 events_long/0                                             
   10 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 events_power_ef                                           
   11 root      20   0     0    0    0 S  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 cgroup            

In the above output, PR column shows the priority.

Sorting top command Output
We can press letter “O”(to select field for sorting) and then select “I”(for nice value) and can have processes sorted as per their nice value.

top - 06:25:26 up  4:22,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 135 total,   1 running, 134 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni,100.0%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    899192k total,   415544k used,   483648k free,    70484k buffers
Swap:        0k total,        0k used,        0k free,   166572k cached

 NI   PID USER      PR  VIRT  SHR S  RES %CPU %MEM    TIME+  COMMAND                                                  
-20  1498 root       0     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 fcoethread/0                                              
-20  1501 root       0     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bnx2fc_l2_threa                                           
-20  1502 root       0     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 bnx2fc_thread/0                                           
-11  2359 gdm        9 99.5m 3104 S 4016  0.0  0.4   0:01.76 pulseaudio                                                
 -4   413 root      16  3020  372 S 1280  0.0  0.1   0:00.23 udevd                                                     
 -4  1385 root      16 13012  612 S  820  0.0  0.1   0:00.01 auditd                                                    
 -2  2140 root      18  3544  580 S 2028  0.0  0.2   0:00.00 udevd                                                     
 -2  2141 root      18  3544  580 S 2032  0.0  0.2   0:00.00 udevd                                                     
  0     1 root      20  2896 1208 S 1436  0.0  0.2   0:01.22 init                                                      
  0     2 root      20     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 kthreadd                                                  
  0     3 root      RT     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 migration/0                                               
  0     4 root      20     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.02 ksoftirqd/0                                               
  0     5 root      RT     0    0 S    0  0.0  0.0   0:00.00 stopper/0    

The column NI refers to nice value of a process. NI value ranges from -20(Highest priority) to 20(lowest priority) on most Unix/Linux like operating systems.

  -20                         20
Highest priority           Lowest priority    
  process                  process

 

b. Using ps command

[root@nglinux ~]# ps -eo uid,pid,ppid,pri,ni,cmd
  UID   PID  PPID PRI  NI CMD
    0     1     0  19   0 /sbin/init
    0     2     0  19   0 [kthreadd]
    0     3     2 139   - [migration/0]
    0     4     2  19   0 [ksoftirqd/0]
    0     5     2 139   - [stopper/0]
    0     6     2 139   - [watchdog/0]
    0     7     2  19   0 [events/0]
    0     8     2  19   0 [events/0]
    0     9     2  19   0 [events_long/0]

In the above output, we can see PRI and NI values to determine the priority of a process in Linux.

Sorting ps command output
ps command supports an option “–sort” to sort the command output by any field/column.

[root@nglinux c_programs]# ps --sort=pri -lu root
F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN  TTY          TIME CMD
4 S     0     1     0  0  80   0 -   724 -      ?        00:00:01 init
1 S     0     2     0  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
1 S     0     3     2  0 -40   - -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 migration/0
1 S     0     4     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
1 S     0     5     2  0 -40   - -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 stopper/0
1 S     0     6     2  0 -40   - -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 watchdog/0
1 S     0     7     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:25 events/0
1 S     0     8     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 events/0
1 S     0     9     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 events_long/0
1 S     0    10     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 events_power_ef
1 S     0    11     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 cgroup
1 S     0    12     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 khelper
1 S     0    13     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 netns
1 S     0    14     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 async/mgr

 

2. Relation between PRI(priority) and NI(nice) Value.
nice value is set in the user space whereas PRI(priority) is the actual priority of a process determined by Linux kernel.
Priorities range from -40 to 99 in which -40(highest priority process) to 60 are for real time processes.
Lower the priority(PRI) value, higher the priority at kernel level.

The default priority of a user process is 80 on a nice value of 0.

And 61(highest priority user program, -19 Nice value) to 99(lowest priority user program, +19 nice value) are for user programs.

Actual Priority=PR+NI
PR = 80 + (-20 to +19) i.e. 39 which maps 60 to 99.

Lets have a look on the output below to understand.

Example 1: Default PRI is 80 and nice value is 0

F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN  TTY          TIME CMD
4 S     0     1     0  0  80   0 -   724 -      ?        00:00:01 init
1 S     0     2     0  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 kthreadd
1 S     0     3     2  0 -40   - -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 migration/0
1 S     0     4     2  0  80   0 -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 ksoftirqd/0
1 S     0     5     2  0 -40   - -     0 -      ?        00:00:00 stopper/0


Example 2: udevd process with nice value of -2 has PRI value 78 i.e. a high priority process. 

F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN  TTY          TIME CMD
4 S     0  2132     1  0  80   0 -   501 -      tty6     00:00:00 mingetty
5 S     0  2140   413  0  78  -2 -   886 -      ?        00:00:00 udevd
5 S     0  2141   413  0  78  -2 -   886 -      ?        00:00:00 udevd
0 S     0  2163  2119  0  80   0 -  5073 -      ?        00:00:00 gdm-simple-slav

 

3. Start a Process with new priority(nice command)
Lets see how to start a process with low or high priority using nice command.

High priority
### Run top command with high priority.
[root@nglinux c_programs]# nice -n -10 top
top - 02:32:00 up 1 day, 29 min,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
Tasks: 137 total,   1 running, 136 sleeping,   0 stopped,   0 zombie
Cpu(s):  0.0%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.8%id,  0.2%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
Mem:    899192k total,   452280k used,   446912k free,    79256k buffers
top - 02:33:07 up 1 day, 30 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 

### Check out the priority in another terminal.
F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN  TTY          TIME CMD
4 S     0  5016  5013  0  80   0 -  1312 -      pts/1    00:00:00 bash
4 S     0  5472  5016  0  70 -10 -   676 -      pts/1    00:00:00 top

Low Priority
### Start top command with lowest priority +20
[root@nglinux c_programs]# nice -n 20 top
top - 02:36:24 up 1 day, 33 min,  3 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00

### Check our priority and nice value in another terminal.
F S   UID   PID  PPID  C PRI  NI ADDR SZ WCHAN  TTY          TIME CMD
4 S     0  5476  5473  0  80   0 -  1282 -      pts/2    00:00:00 bash
4 S     0  5501  5016  0  99  19 -   676 -      pts/1    00:00:00 top

 

4. Change priority of a Process (renice command)
Now lets have a look how to change priority of a running process or command.
To achieve this, we can use renice command.

NAME
     renice - alter priority of running processes
SYNOPSIS
     renice [-n] priority [[-p] pid ...] [[-g] pgrp ...] [[-u] user ...]
     renice -h | -v

Usage

### Check current priority of a PID/process.
[root@nglinux ~]# ps -o pid,uid,pri,ni,cmd 5501
  PID   UID PRI  NI CMD
 5501     0   0  19 top

### Increase the priority
[root@nglinux ~]# renice -n -15 5501 
5501: old priority 19, new priority -15

### Now check the priority again.
[root@nglinux ~]# ps -o pid,uid,pri,ni,cmd 5501
  PID   UID PRI  NI CMD
 5501     0  34 -15 top
[root@nglinux ~]# 

 

5. Set default nice value for a particular user or group
We can also set the default nice value for a particular user or group in /etc/security/limits.conf file.
Entry Syntax: [username] [hard|soft] priority [nice value]

username hard priority 5
@groupname hard priority 10

### Make an entry in limits.conf file.
[root@nglinux ~]# tail -3 /etc/security/limits.conf 
#@student        -       maxlogins       4
* soft core unlimited
nglinux  hard priority 5

### On Terminal 1
[nglinux@nglinux ~]$ top

### On Terminal 2
[root@nglinux c_programs]# ps -u nglinux -o uid,pid,pri,ni,cmd
  UID   PID PRI  NI CMD
  500  5575  14   5 -bash
  500  5601  14   5 top
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