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getloadavg(3) — Linux manual page

NAME | LIBRARY | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ATTRIBUTES | STANDARDS | HISTORY | SEE ALSO | COLOPHON 

getloadavg(3)            Library Functions Manual           getloadavg(3)

NAME         top

       getloadavg - get system load averages

LIBRARY         top

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <stdlib.h>

       int getloadavg(double loadavg[], int n);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
   feature_test_macros(7)):

       getloadavg():
           Since glibc 2.19:
               _DEFAULT_SOURCE
           In glibc up to and including 2.19:
               _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION         top

       The getloadavg() function returns the number of processes in the
       system run queue averaged over various periods of time.  Up to n
       samples are retrieved and assigned to successive elements of
       loadavg[].  The system imposes a maximum of 3 samples,
       representing averages over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes,
       respectively.

RETURN VALUE         top

       If the load average was unobtainable, -1 is returned; otherwise,
       the number of samples actually retrieved is returned.

ATTRIBUTES         top

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
       attributes(7).
       โ”Œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ฌโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”
       โ”‚ Interface                            โ”‚ Attribute     โ”‚ Value   โ”‚
       โ”œโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ผโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ผโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ค
       โ”‚ getloadavg()                         โ”‚ Thread safety โ”‚ MT-Safe โ”‚
       โ””โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ดโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”ดโ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”€โ”˜

STANDARDS         top

       BSD.

HISTORY         top

       4.3BSD-Reno, Solaris.  glibc 2.2.

SEE ALSO         top

       uptime(1), proc(5)

COLOPHON         top

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Linux man-pages 6.18            2025-09-21                  getloadavg(3)

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