The parameter that shows the system's average load over a certain period of time is called load average. In Unix-like systems, it is displayed in the uptime or top commands and shows the average number of processes waiting to be executed over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

For example, the output load average: 0.50, 0.75, 0.60 means that in the last 1 minute, the average load was 0.5; in the last 5 minutes — 0.75; and in the last 15 minutes — 0.6. A value of 1.0 corresponds to full utilization of one CPU core.

Eelmine Edasi