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AND.PRIORITIES(5)		 File Formats		     AND.PRIORITIES(5)

NAME
       /etc/and.priorities - priority database for the auto nice daemon.

VERSION
       This manual page	documents and.priorities for and version 1.2.2.

DESCRIPTION
       This  is	 the  priority database	file for and.  It stores (user,	group,
       command,	parent,	nicelevels) tuples (hereafter called entries)  to  de-
       termine the new nice level (or the kill signal, for that	matter)	when a
       job  reaches  one  of  the  time	limits defined in /etc/and.conf.  (See
       lv1time,	lv2time, and lv3time on	the and.conf manual page for details.)
       See the affinity	setting	in /etc/and.conf for how  ambiguities  between
       the fields (user, group,	command, parent) are dealt with	when searching
       the  database  to determine the new nice	level for a job.  Note that if
       more than one entry matches with	the same accuracy (e.g.	 with  a  par-
       ent= entry and an ancestor= entry), the last entry wins!

       Comments	 start with a #	in the first column.  Empty lines are ignored.
       Unlike with other configuration files,  lines  cannot  be  concatenated
       with a backslash. Furthermore, this file	is case	sensitive.

       and  allows for host-specific sections in the configuration file. These
       work as lines of	the form on somehost and work as follows:  the	parser
       determines  if  the  host name (as returned by gethostname) matches the
       extended	regular	expression that	follows	the on keyword.	If it does, it
       just keeps processing the file as if nothing had	happened. If  it  does
       not match, however, everything up to the	next on	keyword	is skipped. So
       if  you	want  to  end  a  host-specific	 section, you must write on .*
       (which matches all hosts) to switch back	to normal.

       Don't forget to kill -HUP the auto nice daemon to enable	the changes.

SETTINGS
       A valid entry consists of a line	of six columns,	separated  by  one  or
       more spaces. These columns are: (in that	order)

       user The	 user  ID  the	command	 is  running under. May	be a user name
	    (which will	be looked up in	the password file and, if enabled, via
	    NIS), or a numeric user ID,	or an asterisk for any user.

       group
	    The	group ID the command is	running	under. May  be	a  group  name
	    (which  will be looked up in the group file	and again, if enabled,
	    via	NIS), or a numeric group ID, or	an asterisk for	any group.

       command
	    The	name of	the command, without path. May be a command, a regular
	    expression to match	multiple commands, or an asterisk for any com-
	    mand.  Note	that "foobar" will not match "/usr/bin/foobar"	-  you
	    probably mean ".*foobar" or	even ".*foobar.*".

       parent
	    There  are two modes of operation for the parent field, determined
	    by a keyword: parent=foobar	will match if a	process' direct	parent
	    process matches the	command	or regular expression after the	 equal
	    sign,  whereas  ancestor=foobar will match if any ancestor process
	    matches. After the keyword and the equal sign goes the name	of the
	    parent process, without path. May be a command, a regular  expres-
	    sion  to  match multiple commands, or an asterisk for any command.
	    (You can just use the asterisk if you want to ignore  parents  for
	    this   entry.)   Note   that   again   "foobar"   will  not	 match
	    "/usr/bin/foobar", as with command.

       nicelevel 1
	    The	nice level after lv1time CPU time was  used  by	 the  command.
	    Positive  numbers  and  0 are interpreted as nice levels; negative
	    numbers are	interpreted as signals to be sent to  the  command.  A
	    "nice level" of 19 will almost stop	the job, -9 will actually kill
	    it.	(Like in kill -9.)  lv1time can	be set in /etc/and.conf

       nicelevel 2
	    Same but after lv2time.

       nicelevel 3
	    Same but after lv3time.

EXAMPLES
       Here  are  some	entries	from the real world (i.e. from "my" cluster at
       the Institute). As lv[123]time, 5 min., 20 min.,	and 1 hour is assumed.
       (Which is the default. See /etc/and.conf	for details.) You  might  also
       check the default priority database that	comes with and.

       # A finer default nice level
       * * * * 4 8 12

       # User dau is an	idiot, so treat	him like accordingly
       dau * * * 19 19 19

       # Netscape sometimes goes berserk, we must stop it
       * * netscape * 4	-9 -9

       # Most hosts are	free for everyone but some are
       # especially for	the FOO	group
       * * * * 4 8 12
       on (bar|baz)
       * * * * 8 12 16
       # ... or, more radical: * * * * -9 -9 -9
       * foo * * 4 8 12
       on .*

       # KDE screen savers...
       * * .*kss * 16 16 16

       # Grid jobs (assuming they are started by a master
       # process)
       * * * ancestor=grid_master 10 10	10
       # Now some clever yet deceitful user might start	all
       # his jobs using	a shell	script named grid_master.
       # He shall regret... whereas the	original grid_master
       # (owned	by grid) is left alone.
       * * grid_master * -9 -9 -9
       grid * grid_master * 0 0	0

FILES
       /etc/and.priorities
	    The	 priority database (in plain text). Contains the (user,	group,
	    command, nicelevels) tuples. This is  what	this  manual  page  is
	    about.

SEE ALSO
       and(8), and.conf(5), kill(1), regex(7), renice(8)

INTERNET
       http://and.sourceforge.net/

AUTHOR
       The  auto  nice	daemon	and  this  manual page were written by Patrick
       Schemitz	<schemitz@users.sourceforge.net>

Unix				  27 Mar 2005		     AND.PRIORITIES(5)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=and.priorities&sektion=5&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+15.0>

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