[oclug] TOP interpretation

[Damian Gerow]

OddSox wrote:
: Further to my last message, I'm trying to figure out the significance  
: of the various CPU numbers in TOP on my CentOS 5.x server...
: 
: > Cpu(s):  0.3%us,  0.0%sy,  0.0%ni, 99.7%id,  0.0%wa,  0.0%hi,  0.0%si,  0.0%st
: 
: 
: What does 99.7%id mean?

%us = user
%sy = system
%ni = nice
%id = idle
%wa = wait
%hi = ?
%si = system interrupts?
%st = ?

I've never seen those last three, but it's been a few years since I bothered
with 'top' in Linux.  System performance is a notoriously difficult thing to
measure and understand...

user = amount of time the system is running userland code
system = amount of time the system is running kernel code
nice = I've never really understood this one
idle = amount of time the system is doing nothing
wait = amount of time the system is waiting for available CPU cycles

Or something like that.