iStat Help

[simontarr]

Hi there, I think this is in the right forum, if not, my apolagies.

What I wanted to know is what 'Nice' means in the CPU section on the iStat Pro widget. The other 3 (User, system & idle) are all self explanitory, but I just can't figure it out. Is it something dead simple and I'm just being a n00b?

Thanks in advance!

 

[pjo]

nice == priority... kind of

the "nice" number is sort of a "priority" column... processes in UNIX can typically have nice values of -20 through to +20 (haven't checked what the values for OS X are). lower numbers depict higher priority. only root (on most systems) can set negative nice values.

 

[simontarr]

the "nice" number is sort of a "priority" column... processes in UNIX can typically have nice values of -20 through to +20 (haven't checked what the values for OS X are). lower numbers depict higher priority. only root (on most systems) can set negative nice values.

Ah I see. So when I've got handbrake running, the Nice % basically refers to handbrake having priority. Is that correct or am I getting the wrong end of the stick? Thanks again.