Provided by: and_1.2.2-4.1_amd64 bug

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>