From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 25 08:13:56 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D35C110656BE for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 08:13:56 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl [IPv6:2001:4070:101:2::1]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B4D78FC26 for ; Mon, 25 May 2009 08:13:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (8.14.3/8.14.3) with ESMTP id n4P8Df6G036474; Mon, 25 May 2009 10:13:41 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Received: from localhost (wojtek@localhost) by wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl (8.14.3/8.14.3/Submit) with ESMTP id n4P8Dejv036471; Mon, 25 May 2009 10:13:40 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from wojtek@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl) Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 10:13:40 +0200 (CEST) From: Wojciech Puchar To: Scott Bennett In-Reply-To: <200905250716.n4P7GMM4015599@mp.cs.niu.edu> Message-ID: References: <200905250716.n4P7GMM4015599@mp.cs.niu.edu> User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: How can this 'top' command output make sense? Load over 7 and total CPU use ~5% X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 25 May 2009 08:13:58 -0000 >> first - says that it's measure of CPU load >> then - "or waiting for short-term events such as disk I/O" - which is NOT >> measure of CPU load. > > You are mistaken. I think what you are referring to is the percentage of no i'm not. doing lots of I/O and little CPU load produces high "load average". the explanation from the book is wrong.