NAME

       loadwatch - run a program when machine is idle

SYNOPSIS

       loadwatch [options] -p pid | [--] prog [args]

DESCRIPTION

       loadwatch either spawns a child process prog with the arguments args and controls it with all its process
       group, or takes control of an already running process with pid pid with all its process group.

       loadwatch  allows  the controlled processes to run while the load average remains below high_limit. Every
       delay seconds, loadwatch checks the load  average.  If  the  load  is  above  high_limit,  the  child  is
       suspended; the child is resumed when the load falls below low_limit.

OPTIONS

       A summary of options is included below.

       -h high_limit
              A  decimal value that sets the system load at which the child process will be suspended. (Default:
              1.25)

       -l low_limit
              A decimal value that sets the system load at which the child process will  be  resumed.  (Default:
              0.25)

       -d delay
              An integral number of seconds that sets how often the system load will be checked. (Default: 10)

       -n copies
              An integer value that sets the number of copies of prog to run. (Default: 1)

       -u file
              Create a UNIX domain socket file for use by lw-ctl.

       -p pid The pid of the program that should be controlled by loadwatch (with all its process group).

SEE ALSO

       lw-ctl(1), nice(1)

BUGS

       You  should  choose  low_limit  and  high_limit  carefully.  When  the  load  drops  below low_limit, the
       process(es) will be resumed, and it should not, by itself, cause the load to raise above  high_limit,  or
       the whole will oscillate, periodically suspending and resuming the process(es).

       Similarly,  if  several  instances  of loadwatch are running, they may resume their processes at the same
       time, leading to oscillations if the limits are not carefully chosen. Hence, each instance  of  loadwatch
       affects every other instance on the computer, and should not be considered in isolation.

AUTHOR

       This manual page was written by Dale E. Martin <dmartin@debian.org>, for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but
       may be used by others). It was then updated by Nicolas Boullis <nboullis@debian.org>.

                                                    July 2003                                       LOADWATCH(1)