Dan Drake <drake at lemongecko.myip.org> writes:

> On Tue, Jul 03, 2001 at 10:14:58PM -0500, Jay Kline wrote:
> > Can anyone tell me how the load is calculated in linux? 
> 
>   It's the average number of running processes in the last 1, 5, and 15
> minutes. There's no real limit. I'm always running SETI at home, so my load
> average never drops below 1.
> 
>   I might be wrong, but that's how I understand it.

That's pretty much it.  Technically it's hte number of jobs in the run queue.
So full usage on a single processor machine is 1, full usage on a dual
processor machine is 2.  Anything over that and the jobs are waiting for each
other.  

-- 
Jon Schewe | http://mtu.net/~jpschewe | jpschewe at mtu.net
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels 
nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any 
powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all 
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:38-39