Date: 2009jun3 OS: Linux Language: C/C++ Q. How can I programatically get the load average? A. Read and parse the /proc/loadavg file. Here's a C function:

bool loadavg(float *out) { FILE *f; float avg; int n; if (out == NULL) return false; *out = 0.0; if ((f = fopen("/proc/loadavg", "r")) == NULL) return false; n = fscanf(f, "%f", &avg); fclose(f); if (n != 1) return false; *out = avg; return true; } example_use() { float avg; if (!loadavg(&avg)) { printf("Could not get load average\n"); return; } printf("load=%f\n", avg); }