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IONICE(1) User Commands IONICE(1)
NAME
ionice - set or get process I/O scheduling class and priority
SYNOPSIS
ionice [-c class] [-n level] [-t] -p PID
ionice [-c class] [-n level] [-t] -P PGID
ionice [-c class] [-n level] [-t] -u UID
ionice [-c class] [-n level] [-t] command [argument] ...
DESCRIPTION
This program sets or gets the I/O scheduling class and priority for a program. If no
arguments or just -p is given, ionice will query the current I/O scheduling class and
priority for that process.
When command is given, ionice will run this command with the given arguments. If no class
is specified, then command will be executed with the "best-effort" scheduling class. The
default priority level is 4.
As of this writing, a process can be in one of three scheduling classes:
Idle
A program running with idle I/O priority will only get disk time when no other program
has asked for disk I/O for a defined grace period. The impact of an idle I/O process
on normal system activity should be zero. This scheduling class does not take a
priority argument. Presently, this scheduling class is permitted for an ordinary user
(since kernel 2.6.25).
Best-effort
This is the effective scheduling class for any process that has not asked for a
specific I/O priority. This class takes a priority argument from 0-7, with a lower
number being higher priority. Programs running at the same best-effort priority are
served in a round-robin fashion.
Note that before kernel 2.6.26 a process that has not asked for an I/O priority
formally uses "none" as scheduling class, but the I/O scheduler will treat such
processes as if it were in the best-effort class. The priority within the best-effort
class will be dynamically derived from the CPU nice level of the process: io_priority
= (cpu_nice + 20) / 5.
For kernels after 2.6.26 with the CFQ I/O scheduler, a process that has not asked for
an I/O priority inherits its CPU scheduling class. The I/O priority is derived from
the CPU nice level of the process (same as before kernel 2.6.26).
Realtime
The RT scheduling class is given first access to the disk, regardless of what else is
going on in the system. Thus the RT class needs to be used with some care, as it can
starve other processes. As with the best-effort class, 8 priority levels are defined
denoting how big a time slice a given process will receive on each scheduling window.
This scheduling class is not permitted for an ordinary (i.e., non-root) user.
OPTIONS
-c, --class class
Specify the name or number of the scheduling class to use; 0 for none, 1 for realtime,
2 for best-effort, 3 for idle.
-n, --classdata level
Specify the scheduling class data. This only has an effect if the class accepts an
argument. For realtime and best-effort, 0-7 are valid data (priority levels), and 0
represents the highest priority level.
-p, --pid PID...
Specify the process IDs of running processes for which to get or set the scheduling
parameters.
-P, --pgid PGID...
Specify the process group IDs of running processes for which to get or set the
scheduling parameters.
-t, --ignore
Ignore failure to set the requested priority. If command was specified, run it even in
case it was not possible to set the desired scheduling priority, which can happen due
to insufficient privileges or an old kernel version.
-h, --help
Display help text and exit.
-u, --uid UID...
Specify the user IDs of running processes for which to get or set the scheduling
parameters.
-V, --version
Display version information and exit.
NOTES
Linux supports I/O scheduling priorities and classes since 2.6.13 with the CFQ I/O
scheduler.
EXAMPLES
o # ionice -c 3 -p 89
Sets process with PID 89 as an idle I/O process.
o # ionice -c 2 -n 0 bash
Runs 'bash' as a best-effort program with highest priority.
o # ionice -p 89 91
Prints the class and priority of the processes with PID 89 and 91.
AUTHORS
Jens Axboe <jens AT axboe.dk>, Karel Zak <kzak AT redhat.com>
SEE ALSO
ioprio_set(2)
REPORTING BUGS
For bug reports, use the issue tracker at https://github.com/karelzak/util-linux/issues.
AVAILABILITY
The ionice command is part of the util-linux package which can be downloaded from Linux
Kernel Archive <https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux/>.
util-linux 2.37.2 2021-06-02 IONICE(1)
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