you can alter the 'nice' value of processes via the terminal. first, discover the pid (with top, or ps). then do: "renice amt pid". where amt is a positive or negative number (magnitude up to 20); amt is the 'nice' amount. low numbers are high priority (more proc), hi numbers are low priority (less proc). I think u need to be root in order to change the nice to a negative number. it's also possible to start a process with a certain nice value (with the 'nice' command), but i never got it to work right.
Then wouldn't this allow one process to control the CPU, thus reverting to the OS 9 way of one process controlling the whole machine? This seems like a violation of the way OS X's multiprocessing works.
<strong>Then wouldn't this allow one process to control the CPU, thus reverting to the OS 9 way of one process controlling the whole machine? This seems like a violation of the way OS X's multiprocessing works.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nope. 1) Nicing is a *request* of the OS. If the OS determines that your nicing value is just ludicrous, or that it interferes too much with the other processes, it's free to ignore you. 2) The OS has -infinity nice. It can override *anybody* at any time. And it will. This prevents someone from taking over, since the OS will cut in, say "Oh come now, that's just rude..." and pop up the nice value to make the app behave.
Under OS 9, the OS was another process that had to wait for a timeslice. Under MacOS X, the OS is what *decides* who gets timeslices.
Remember to read the man page of the shell you are using. The nice value depends on what you shell uses. If I remember some go -20 to 20 and other go 0 to40. Or something like that. RTFM.
Comments
Anyway if you don't want to learn all that gibberish check <a href="http://www.versiontracker.com/moreinfo.fcgi?id=13336&db=mac"; target="_blank">this</a> out.
You nice something up to give it more of the computer's processor power so it will run faster.
<strong>Then wouldn't this allow one process to control the CPU, thus reverting to the OS 9 way of one process controlling the whole machine? This seems like a violation of the way OS X's multiprocessing works.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Nope. 1) Nicing is a *request* of the OS. If the OS determines that your nicing value is just ludicrous, or that it interferes too much with the other processes, it's free to ignore you. 2) The OS has -infinity nice. It can override *anybody* at any time. And it will.
Under OS 9, the OS was another process that had to wait for a timeslice. Under MacOS X, the OS is what *decides* who gets timeslices.
[ 01-28-2003: Message edited by: Scott ]</p>
<strong>The OS has -infinity nice.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Man, that's just beautiful.
/me goes to work out ways to convince Windoze freaks that this means their OS sucks.