TOP load average meaning

Hi,

I was struggling to find the information so I thought it would be easier to ask here.

What does the load average as reported by top mean ? To me those are 3 mysterious values, which most likely refer to some average CPU usage and this is all I know about it (not sure if it’s true).

What is the maximum value for this parameter (I guess the minimum is 0.00) and what does it mean ?

Best regards,
Greg

On 07/12/2011 12:36 PM, glistwan wrote:
>
> What does the load average as reported by top mean ?

is that not in either ‘info top’ or ‘man top’ ?

or maybe in one of these:
http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+top+load+average

i think it is, but i’m in a bit of a hurry just now, i’ll look later for
you…

or you might look for yourself…and find it faster than i might…


DD
-Caveat-Hardware-Software-

I was looking in the man but could not find it. This link describes it nicely to my mind so thanks alot :slight_smile:
Examining Load Average | Linux Journal

Best regards,
Greg

DenverD wrote:
> On 07/12/2011 12:36 PM, glistwan wrote:
>>
>> What does the load average as reported by top mean ?
>
> is that not in either ‘info top’ or ‘man top’ ?
>
> or maybe in one of these:
> http://www.google.com/search?q=linux+top+load+average

This hit seems pretty good:

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9001

On 07/12/2011 01:36 PM, glistwan wrote:
> I was looking in the man but could not find it.

right…sometimes you get more out of ‘info’ than ‘man’, sometimes a LOT
more…

and, of course i guess google knows everything (that article had more
than i wanted to learn)

dd


DD
-Caveat-Hardware-Software-

Yep. I was trying google before as well but I guess wasn’t searching for the right phrases :slight_smile: so thanks again.

Best regards,
Greg