NAME

       getloadavg - get system load averages

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdlib.h>

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

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       getloadavg():
           Since glibc 2.19:
               _DEFAULT_SOURCE
           In glibc up to and including 2.19:
               _BSD_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

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

RETURN VALUE

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

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
       ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │ Interface                                                                   │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │ getloadavg()                                                                │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       BSD.

HISTORY

       4.3BSD-Reno, Solaris.  glibc 2.2.

SEE ALSO

       uptime(1), proc(5)

Linux man-pages 6.16                               2025-09-21                                      getloadavg(3)