From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Sun Oct 25 02:15:40 2020 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.nyi.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2610:1c1:1:606c::19:1]) by mailman.nyi.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8648543DFAA for ; Sun, 25 Oct 2020 02:15:40 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bob@proulx.com) Received: from havoc.proulx.com (havoc.proulx.com [96.88.95.61]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 4CJhQM2Kfvz4QvC for ; Sun, 25 Oct 2020 02:15:38 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from bob@proulx.com) Received: from joseki.proulx.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by havoc.proulx.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id AC1AE497 for ; Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:15:31 -0600 (MDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=proulx.com; s=dkim2048; t=1603592131; bh=surh8rqmoJbfRbDVDVCF7DWO7smQqVTVzniPZoEbcEw=; h=Date:From:To:Subject:References:In-Reply-To:From; b=ZFIusiIZ392Q7YHyR7ggLN5w/YUWXGbF8VGRgRnguzRJIonx8uOCykRz23IVq8vzz YHn6ev6CtvnUE6qv20DAHhr00Grmy1c23JI4aFsnj5Hq2iEoOkOreWn19XJ7xS+Kmf u61mqMBv11B7ZnSGVHeSJe1mhUhNfEgBkGuYCeM08BQ5loYr4fNgLkadrH/tiX1qo1 WWFJ48jCBCKXcFQBjOCDVntETnegddAMJYd606enxQvI6z4/859cF7jyA4G+U2fb43 2Ir3ijOS9bZstJtIpGPSeRnL/AD1mQF90wDYl3TCn4n6N+xCof1SFWFfFywZ6j3Dqs EcvTmQU4ZSalw== Received: from hysteria.proulx.com (hysteria.proulx.com [192.168.230.119]) by joseki.proulx.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7AA9F21156 for ; Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:15:31 -0600 (MDT) Received: by hysteria.proulx.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 61C942DC9D; Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:15:31 -0600 (MDT) Date: Sat, 24 Oct 2020 20:15:31 -0600 From: Bob Proulx To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What are "who parameters"? (man 8 renice) Message-ID: <20201024195657878687952@bob.proulx.com> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: X-Rspamd-Queue-Id: 4CJhQM2Kfvz4QvC X-Spamd-Bar: --- Authentication-Results: mx1.freebsd.org; dkim=pass header.d=proulx.com header.s=dkim2048 header.b=ZFIusiIZ; dmarc=pass (policy=none) header.from=proulx.com; spf=pass (mx1.freebsd.org: domain of bob@proulx.com designates 96.88.95.61 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=bob@proulx.com X-Spamd-Result: default: False [-3.74 / 15.00]; ARC_NA(0.00)[]; NEURAL_HAM_MEDIUM(-1.03)[-1.034]; R_DKIM_ALLOW(-0.20)[proulx.com:s=dkim2048]; FROM_HAS_DN(0.00)[]; TO_MATCH_ENVRCPT_ALL(0.00)[]; R_SPF_ALLOW(-0.20)[+a]; MIME_GOOD(-0.10)[text/plain]; TO_DN_NONE(0.00)[]; PREVIOUSLY_DELIVERED(0.00)[freebsd-questions@freebsd.org]; RCPT_COUNT_ONE(0.00)[1]; NEURAL_HAM_LONG(-0.98)[-0.982]; RCVD_COUNT_THREE(0.00)[3]; DKIM_TRACE(0.00)[proulx.com:+]; DMARC_POLICY_ALLOW(-0.50)[proulx.com,none]; NEURAL_HAM_SHORT(-0.73)[-0.727]; FROM_EQ_ENVFROM(0.00)[]; MIME_TRACE(0.00)[0:+]; RCVD_TLS_LAST(0.00)[]; ASN(0.00)[asn:7922, ipnet:96.64.0.0/11, country:US]; SUBJECT_HAS_QUESTION(0.00)[]; MAILMAN_DEST(0.00)[freebsd-questions] X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.33 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 25 Oct 2020 02:15:40 -0000 Ottavio Caruso via freebsd-questions wrote: > Can manual pages be more arcane and esoteric than this? Yes. But they don't know how! :-) However the wording on that man page days *way* back many, many years. It's very old. It appears to have arrived sometime between 2.9 BSD and 2.10 BSD sometime in the mid 1980's. Compare this 2.9.1 BSD man page: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=renice&manpath=2.9.1+BSD With this 2.10 BSD man page: https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=renice&manpath=2.10+BSD > % man 8 renice > > https://man.bsd.lv/FreeBSD-12.0/renice The synopsys line is always useful. renice priority [[-p] pid ...] [[-g] pgrp ...] [[-u] user ...] renice -n increment [[-p] pid ...] [[-g] pgrp ...] [[-u] user ...] > "The following who parameters are interpreted as ..." > > "-g > Force who parameters to be interpreted as process group ID's." > > "-u > Force the who parameters to be interpreted as user names or user ID's" And then there is an example. Change the priority of process ID's 987 and 32, and all processes owned by users daemon and root. renice +1 987 -u daemon root -p 32 > "who" is underlined. Is it an acronym? I've seen this mentioned only in this > man page on FreeBSD and NetBSD. I think the original intention one was always affecting *other* processes. Some other target. But back then one had a deeply emotional bond with processes before renicing them. First there was coffee and then later maybe dinner. Processes were humanized. They were not an "it" but a "who". And so the document is asking "who" is getting reniced? Who being what process. But here it is who is being reniced. And that is why it was worded that way. > The OpenBSD manual page seems to to be saner: > https://man.bsd.lv/renice For the most part newer manuals mostly do rewrite that considerably and now refer to those as process identifiers. Bob