GETLOADAVG(3) Library Functions Manual GETLOADAVG(3)

getloadavgget system load averages

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

#include <stdlib.h>

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

The () function returns the number of processes in the system run queue averaged over various periods of time. Up to nelem 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.

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

uptime(1), kvm_getloadavg(3), sysctl(3)

The getloadavg() function appeared in 4.3BSD-Reno.

June 4, 1993 macOS 15.2