Run a program with a modified scheduling priority
The nice command is used to start a process with a specific scheduling priority.
nice [option] [command [arguments]...]
-n, --adjustment=N: Add integer N to the niceness (default 10). Nice values range from -20 (highest priority) to 19 (lowest priority).
Command and Arguments: The command to be executed along with any arguments.
Start a process with a specific priority. For example, compressing a directory while ensuring it doesn't consume too much CPU:
nice -n 19 tar zcf pack.tar.gz documents
The usage is simple: just prefix the original command with nice -n <value>. Note that for many systems, positive values indicate lower priority. To give a process the highest possible priority (requires root privileges), use --20:
nice -n -20 tar zcf pack.tar.gz documents