Add option -nice to lower engine priority

To enable the GUI to lower engine priority without lowering the priority
of the adapter process, a new argument '-nice N' can be used on UCI2WB
to delegate that task to it.

diff --git a/UCI2WB.c b/UCI2WB.c
index 08d5252..10b1f6d 100644 (file)
--- a/UCI2WB.c
+++ b/UCI2WB.c
@@ -52,7 +52,7 @@ int statDepth, statScore, statNodes, statTime, currNr, size, collect, nr, sm, in
 char currMove[20], moveMap[500][10], /* for analyze mode */ canPonder[20], threadOpt[20], varList[8000], anaOpt[20], checkOptions[8192] = "Ponder";\r
 char pvs[99][999], board[100];  // XQ board for UCCI\r
 char *nameWord = "name ", *valueWord = "value ", *wTime = "w", *bTime = "b", *wInc = "winc", *bInc = "binc", newGame; // keywords that differ in UCCI\r
-int unit = 1, drawOffer, scores[99], mpvSP, maxDepth, ponderAlways, newCnt;\r
+int unit = 1, drawOffer, scores[99], mpvSP, maxDepth, ponderAlways, newCnt, priority;\r
 \r
 FILE *toE, *fromE, *fromF;\r
 int pid;\r
@@ -694,9 +694,9 @@ StartEngine(char *cmdLine, char *dir)
 \r
   if (! fSuccess) return GetLastError();\r
 \r
-//  if (0) { // in the future we could trigger this by an argument\r
-//    SetPriorityClass(piProcInfo.hProcess, GetWin32Priority(appData.niceEngines));\r
-//  }\r
+  if (priority > 0) { // for now only implement all lowered priorityies the same way\r
+    SetPriorityClass(piProcInfo.hProcess, BELOW_NORMAL_PRIORITY_CLASS);\r
+  }\r
 \r
   /* Close the handles we don't need in the parent */\r
   CloseHandle(piProcInfo.hThread);\r
@@ -723,6 +723,7 @@ StartEngine(char *cmdLine, char *dir)
        strcpy(buf, cmdLine); p = buf;\r
        for (i=0;;) { argv[i++] = p; p = strchr(p, ' '); if (p == NULL) break; *p++ = 0; }\r
        argv[i] = NULL;\r
+        if(priority) i = nice(priority);\r
         execvp(argv[0], argv); // startup engine\r
        \r
        perror(argv[0]); exit(1); // could not start engine; quit.\r
@@ -745,6 +746,7 @@ main(int argc, char **argv)
        if(argc == 2 && !strcmp(argv[1], "-v")) { printf("UCI2WB " VERSION " by H.G.Muller\n"); exit(0); }\r
        if(argc > 1 && !strcmp(argv[1], "debug")) { debug = 1; argc--; argv++; }\r
        if(argc > 1 && !strcmp(argv[1], "-var")) { strcpy(varList+1, argv[2]); *varList = ','; argc-=2; argv+=2; }\r
+       if(argc > 2 && !strcmp(argv[1], "-nice")) { sscanf(argv[2], "%d", &priority); argc-=2; argv+=2; }\r
        if(argc > 1 && argv[1][0] == '-') { sc = argv[1][1]; argc--; argv++; }\r
        if(argc < 2) { printf("usage is: U%cI2WB [debug] [-s] <engine.exe> [<engine directory>]\n", sc-32); exit(-1); }\r
        if(argc > 2) dir = argv[2];\r

diff --git a/uci2wb.pod b/uci2wb.pod
index 5ccd18e..72117fe 100644 (file)
--- a/uci2wb.pod
+++ b/uci2wb.pod
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ uci2wb - Protocol adapter for UCI dialects to XBoard
 
 =head1 SYNOPSIS
 
-B<uci2wb> [debug] [-var <variant>] [-c|-s|-x] engine [directory]
+B<uci2wb> [debug] [-var <variant>] [-nice <priority>] [-c|-s|-x] engine [directory]
 
 
 =head1 DESCRIPTION
@@ -50,6 +50,11 @@ So if these are not the standard variants implied by the protocol choice,
 (but, f.e. seirawan or 6x6+6_shogi) it has to be configured on the
 uci2wb command line through this option.
 
+=item B<-nice <priority>>
+
+Runs the engine processes at the requested priority;
+positive values lower the priority.
+
 =item B<debug>
 
 Makes uci2wb report to the GUI everything it receives from the engine,