As a user, you can only lower the priority of a process. An administrator can raise or lower the priority of a process.
As a user, you can lower the priority of a command by increasing the nice number.
The following nice command executes command-name with a lower priority by raising the nice number by 5 units.
$ /usr/bin/nice -5 command-name
In this command, the minus sign designates that what follows is an option. This command could also be specified as follows:
$ /usr/bin/nice -n 5 command-name
The following nice command lowers the priority of command-name by raising the nice number by the default increment of 10 units, but not beyond the maximum value of 39.
$ /usr/bin/nice command-name
As an administrator, you can raise or lower the priority of a command by changing the nice number.
The following nice command raises the priority of command-name by lowering the nice number by 10 units. It is not lowered below the minimum value of 0.
# /usr/bin/nice --10 command-name
In this command, the first minus sign designates that what follows is an option. The second minus sign indicates a negative number.
The following nice command lowers the priority of command-name by raising the nice number by 5 units. It does not exceed the maximum value of 39.
# /usr/bin/nice -5 command-name
For more information, see the nice(1) man page.