How is the system's average load indicator determined?

The system load average is a metric that shows the average number of processes waiting to execute or currently executing over a specific period of time.

In Unix-like systems, it is usually calculated as an exponentially weighted moving average over 1, 5, and 15 minutes. The value reflects how many processes were actively running or waiting for CPU time on average.

For example, a load average of 1 on a system with a single core means the CPU was fully loaded. A value higher than the number of cores indicates system overload.

You can obtain this data using the uptime or top commands.

Example output of the uptime command:

 15:30:01 up 10 days,  3:22,  2 users,  load average: 0.75, 0.60, 0.55

Here, 0.75 is the average load over the last minute, 0.60 over 5 minutes, and 0.55 over 15 minutes.