Here some handy notes! -n -20 => HIGHEST -n 19 => LOWEST $ ps axl nice -10 <command name> and nice -n 10 <command name> will do the same thing (both the above commands will make the process priority to the value 10). A major misconception about nice command is that nice -10 <command name> will run that process with -10 (a higher priority). In order to assign -10 priority to a command then you should run it as shown below. nice --10 <command name> http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/change-the-nice-value-of-a-process/ http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2013/08/nice-renice-command-examples Renice (change priority of a running process). Example - put a PID to LOWER priority $ renice 19 PID http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/howto-change-unix-linux-process-priority/