Re: Badly formed number error with tcsh

> I found the following problem with nice 2.0.11:

If you would be so kind as to report the 'nice --version' output to
the list it would be appreciated.  I believe you will find that it is
not the GNU version.

> with tcsh

If you are using tcsh then you are using the tcsh built-in version and
NOT the GNU version.

>    Marc:~/src/openoffice/oo_641c_src> nice -n -19 bootstrap
>    nice: Badly formed number.

I believe you will find that 'nice' is a built-in command to tcsh.  I
believe you are NOT running the GNU nice program but are running the
tcsh shell built-in.

> nice +19 bootstrap is ok;
> 
> nice -19 give me:
>   setpriority: Permission denied.

The tcsh man page says:

       nice [+number] [command]
               Sets the scheduling priority for the shell to num-
               ber, or, without number, to 4. With command,  runs
               command  at the appropriate priority.  The greater
               the number, the less cpu the  process  gets.   The
               super-user  may specify negative priority by using
               `nice -number ...'.  Command is always executed in
               a  sub-shell,  and the restrictions placed on com-
               mands in simple if statements apply.

And therefore what you are seeing cooresponds to the tcsh built-in
nice command.  What does 'nice --version' say?  If it does not say GNU
then it is not.

> No problem with bash.

Bash does not implement nice as a built-in.  In the case of bash you
are probably running the actual GNU nice program.  If you look at the
'nice --version' output you will see.

> I hope it is not a "feature" of tcsh.

Sorry, it is a feature of tcsh.  Perhaps you should switch?  csh was
the ultimate paper terminal command shell.  But I have not used a
paper terminal in 17 years.  Just for fun, here is a famous treatise
on the subject.

  http://www.perl.com/pub/a/language/versus/csh.html

Bob