'\" t .\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-3-Clause .\" .\" @(#)getloadavg.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" .\" 2007-12-08, mtk, Converted from mdoc to man macros .\" .TH getloadavg 3 2024-05-02 "Linux man-pages 6.9.1" .SH NAME getloadavg \- get system load averages .SH LIBRARY Standard C library .RI ( libc ", " \-lc ) .SH SYNOPSIS .nf .B #include .P .BI "int getloadavg(double " loadavg[] ", int " nelem ); .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 nelem 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)