Really nice system administration console

When you're like me, you don't like your CPU cycles waste — and if you're using Gentoo, you like to be constantly merging something in the background. The problem is that the CPU and IO load really can be a major PITA, rendering the machine essentially unusable to do any real work when compilation is running.

Luckily, Linux kernel offer a great deal of flexibility when it comes to scheduling and prioritizing processes. And using that, I hereby present you The Really Nice SysAdmin Console:

alias suscreen="sudo screen -drU || sudo nice -n19 ionice -c3 chrt -b 0 su - -c 'screen -U'"

What this code does, is to:

• try to attach to an existing root screen (won't work for more than one, sorry),
• in case that fails (ie. no screen running) it sets up a root login screen, scheduled on
  • lowest nice priority,
  • idle io priority class,
  • BATCH scheduler class.

Maybe chrt -b 0 and nice -n19 are a bit redundant, but you're never too sure. The bottom line is — you can have your compilation running in that screen and it doesn't go in the way with whatever you do; when need be, it just yields any CPU and IO to higher-class (ie. your) processes. So you can have your cake and eat it too.