Automatic nice values?

correctclick · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 71

Hi. Frequently, I'm compiling something while I use openoffice and my mouse begins to jump, keypresses come in spurts, etc. I found that by nice'ing openoffice (soffice-bin actually) to 20, everything gets much more responsive and there really is no difference compared to when I'm not compiling anything. My question is, is there a way for me to tell linux to always run a certain program with a certain nice value? This would save me from having to renice all the time.

I suppose a script could do it by looking for the pid in ps -A and using that to renice, but this seems like the sort of thing linux would be able to do by itself and I'd rather not take the time if there's a better way.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

simulacrum · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 4:30 am Post subject:

I've thought about this one myself. Although I haven't done it yet, I've considered aliasing emerge to "nice -n20 emerge" in my .bashrc for root. Seems a bit clunky but would work. Anyone with a better idea?

DArtagnan · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 6:27 am Post subject:

simulacrum · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 6:36 am Post subject:

I'm saying to alias emerge to "nice -n20 emerge" so that when you emerge a package, it's nice'd down to +20.

DArtagnan · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 6:38 am Post subject:

zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

I thought nice -20 is most important, and nice 20 is background task?

DArtagnan · Posted: Mon Dec 09, 2002 7:02 am Post subject:

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

correctclick · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 71

Thanks everyone for your help, I may do that. Just one other question:

Will always giving emerge a low priority slow things down when I'm not using the computer? Obviously, when I'm not using it, I'd like it to go as fast as possible.

Thanks everyone for you help.

aardvark · Guru Joined: 30 Jun 2002 Posts: 576

correctclick · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 71

Yup, this is what I want. I was going to add a line like this to root's .bashrc

alias emerge='nice -n 19 emerge'

But I was surprised to find that there is no .bashrc! I copied one over from a redhat machine (which is what I used before gentoo), but my gentoo machine doesn't seem to be using it.

Interestingly, my user account, 'tim', does have a .bashrc, but root doesn't.

How can I tell bash to use the .bashrc I just copied to root's home upon each login?

Thanks.

Zr40 · Tux's lil' helper Joined: 19 Sep 2002 Posts: 76

Try using .bash_profile instead of .bashrc, or put 'source .bashrc' in .bash_profile.

correctclick · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 71

Excellent, that works. Thanks.

Pigeon · Guru Joined: 21 Jun 2002 Posts: 307

.bashrc is only used in terminal shells, and .bash_profile is only used in login shells. Login shells automatically source /etc/profile, but terminal shells do not. Kinda funky.

correctclick · n00b Joined: 18 Jul 2002 Posts: 71

Excuse me if I'm ignorant, but why is it a login shell when I'm root and a terminal shell when I'm a user? What's the difference?

Thanks.

simulacrum · Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2002 3:26 am Post subject:

I've maintained a .bashrc for a while over various distros and installs, so mine is a bit developed by now. I also maintain a simple .profile that ensures .bashrc is executed:

if test -f ~/.bashrc; then
. ~/.bashrc
fi

proxy · Posted: Wed Dec 11, 2002 8:51 am Post subject:

or you could just use the gentoo supplied .bashrc and .bash_profile files

lanius · Retired Dev Joined: 08 Dec 2002 Posts: 160

Is there no better possibility to run X or KDE or any WM on a higher default priority, this solution seems a bit clunky