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-rw-r--r--doc/coreutils.texi10
1 files changed, 10 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/coreutils.texi b/doc/coreutils.texi
index 32b6977a6..17d6e2887 100644
--- a/doc/coreutils.texi
+++ b/doc/coreutils.texi
@@ -12517,6 +12517,16 @@ enforce more restrictive limits. An attempt to set the niceness
outside the supported range is treated as an attempt to use the
minimum or maximum supported value.
+A niceness should not be confused with a scheduling priority, which
+lets applications determine the order in which threads are scheduled
+to run. Unlike a priority, a niceness is merely advice to the
+scheduler, which the scheduler is free to ignore. Also, as a point of
+terminology, @acronym{POSIX} defines the behavior of @command{nice} in
+terms of a @dfn{nice value}, which is the nonnegative difference
+between a niceness and the minimum niceness. Though @command{nice}
+conforms to @command{POSIX}, its documentation and diagnostics use the
+term ``niceness'' for compatibility with historical practice.
+
@var{command} must not be a special built-in utility (@pxref{Special
built-in utilities}).