HP OpenVMS Guide to System Security > Appendix A Assigning Privileges

ALTPRI Privilege (System)

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The ALTPRI privilege allows the user's process to:

  • Increase its own base priority

  • Set the base priority of a target process

  • Change the priority of its batch or print jobs

The base priority is increased by executing the Set Priority ($SETPRI) system service or the DCL command SET PROCESS/PRIORITY. As a rule, this system service lets a process set its own base priority or the base priority of another process. However, one process can set the priority of a second process only if one of the following conditions applies:

  • The process calling the $SETPRI system service has the same UIC as the target process.

  • The calling process has process control privilege (GROUP or WORLD) over the target process.

With ALTPRI, a process can create a detached process with a priority higher than its own. It creates such a process by using an optional argument to the Create Process ($CREPRC) system service or to the DCL command RUN/PRIORITY.

ALTPRI also lets you adjust the scheduling priority of a job ($SNDJBC) to a value even greater than that established with the system parameter MAXQUEPRI.

Do not grant this privilege widely; if unqualified users have the unrestricted ability to set base priorities, fair and orderly scheduling of processes for execution can easily be disrupted.