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 determine 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
       parent= 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 command.  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 expression
            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)