Re: xload shows 1/2 of the actual load

On Fri, 24 Oct 2008, Rares Vernica wrote:

> "xload" shows that the load on my computer is 50% when in fact is 100%. I
> know is 100% from "top".

> Here is how I start xload:

>> xload -update 2 -scale 5 -nolabel -bg black -fg white -hl cyan -geometry
> 50x30+1870+20 &

> I have a dual core and "top" shows that both cores have a 100% load. I
> have tow processes running, each taking 50% of the total processing
> power (100% of a core each).

`xload` charts load average, not CPU utilisation.  Load average is defined 
differently on different OS'es, but on Linux, `xload` charts the average 
number of processes either running or waiting for disk I/O over the last 
second.  It gets this information by reading /proc/loadavg.

Marc.

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