'\" t
.\" Copyright 1989-1993, The Regents of the University of California.
.\" Copyright, The contributors to the Linux man-pages project
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause
.\"
.TH getloadavg 3 2025-05-06 "Linux man-pages 6.14"
.SH NAME
getloadavg \- get system load averages
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <stdlib.h>
.P
.BI "int getloadavg(double " loadavg[] ", int " n );
.fi
.P
.RS -4
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
.RE
.P
.BR getloadavg ():
.nf
    Since glibc 2.19:
        _DEFAULT_SOURCE
    In glibc up to and including 2.19:
        _BSD_SOURCE
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR getloadavg ()
function returns the number of processes in the system run queue
averaged over various periods of time.
Up to
.I n
samples are retrieved and assigned to successive elements of
.IR loadavg[] .
The system imposes a maximum of 3 samples, representing averages
over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes, respectively.
.SH RETURN VALUE
If the load average was unobtainable, \-1 is returned; otherwise,
the number of samples actually retrieved is returned.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lbx lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.na
.nh
.BR getloadavg ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH STANDARDS
BSD.
.SH HISTORY
4.3BSD-Reno, Solaris.
glibc 2.2.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR uptime (1),
.BR proc (5)