Hi.

I am wondering if there's any way to set priorities on individual processes running on Linux? Here's the reason why I need to do it.

I need to copy a large file (500+ MB) from my local machine (FC6) to my server (FC3) over the home network (100 Mbps Intranet) every day. It just so happens that I want to be able to do other things on the local machine while copying the file. However, durinrg the copying process (either using "cp" on konsole or using KDE GUI), my Firefox will come to a complete halt. Opening a new page often takes more than half a minute, so does opening a new tab, refreshing an existing page, etc. Other apps face the same problem. Essentially, the copy process seems to be holding up everything else.

So what I want to do is prioritize the processes so the copy operation yields to processes of higher priority, such as firefox-bin, whenever they are activated. How is it possible?

I'm really hoping that Linux will let me do that. I don't want to resort to an RTOS just for this.

TIA!
Dai

'nice' does that

You might also want to look at rsync. By default, it'll only copy over differences, so if you just want an updated copy,after the first copy you'll just get the 'updates'.
Also does compression on the fly and can use ssh protocol if you want.

Thanks for the info! I will try it tonight.

Unfortunately, the files I copy are different every day so rsync would be of little help. I certainly appreciate your input, though.

Dai