The other is the real-time priority, which ranges from 1 to 99 by default, then 100 to 139 are meant for user-space. The first one is a nice value ( niceness) which ranges from -20 (highest priority value) to 19 (lowest priority value) and the default is 0, this is what we will uncover in this guide.

There are a total of 140 priorities and two distinct priority ranges implemented in Linux. Processes with a higher priority will be executed before those with a lower priority, while processes with the same priority are scheduled one after the next, repeatedly. The kernel stores a great deal of information about processes including process priority which is simply the scheduling priority attached to a process. Understanding Process Priority and Nice Value It ranks processes based on the most deserving as well as the need for CPU time.

The scheduler forms the core of multitasking in Linux, using a priority-based scheduling algorithm to choose between the runnable processes in the system. A runnable process is one which is waiting only for CPU time, it’s ready to be executed. Read Also: How to Monitor Linux Processes and Set Process Limits on a Per-User Basis Understanding the Linux Kernel SchedulerĪ kernel scheduler is a unit of the kernel that determines the most suitable process out of all runnable processes to execute next it allocates processor time between the runnable processes on a system. Then we will dive into a little bit of Linux process management: see how to run a program or command with modified priority and also change the priority of running Linux processes. In this article, we’ll briefly explain the kernel scheduler (also known as the process scheduler), and process priority, which are topics beyond the scope of this guide.

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