What is the psutil.getloadavg() method?

What is the psutil module?

The psutil (python system and process utilities) is a Python package that retrieves information on ongoing processes and system usage (CPU, memory, storage, network, and sensors). We mainly use it for system monitoring, profiling, restricting process resources, and process management.

The module can be installed via pip as follows:

pip install psutil

The getloadavg method

System load refers to the processes in a running state or are either utilizing or waiting to use the CPU (for example, waiting for disc I/O).

The getloadavg method returns the average system load. The method returns a tuple with three values which indicate the average system load over the last 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

The number given by this method is just a number, and to better understand it, we convert the number to a percentage. Every number in the tuple returned by the method is divided by the number of logical CPUs, and then the result is multiplied by 100 to get the corresponding percentage.

The code for the above logic is as follows:

num_log_cpus = psutil.cpu_count()

percent_tuple = []

for load in psutil.getloadavg():
    percent = (load / num_log_cpus) * 100
    percent_tuple.append(percent)

Method signature

psutil.getloadavg()

The method takes no parameters.

Code

import psutil
def convert_to_percent(load_tuple):
    num_log_cpus = psutil.cpu_count()
    percent_lst = []
    for load in load_tuple:
        percent = (load / num_log_cpus) * 100
        percent_lst.append(percent)
    
    return tuple(percent_lst)
load_tuple = psutil.getloadavg()
print("psutil.psutil.getloadavg() = ", load_tuple)
print("Converting to percentage = ", convert_to_percent(load_tuple))

Explanation

  • Line 1: We import the psutil module.
  • Lines 3–12: We define a function called convert_to_percent that takes in values returned by getloadavg() method and converts them into percentage values.
  • Line 15: We invoke the getloadavg() method, and the values are stored in the variable load_tuple.
  • Line 17: We convert load_tuple to a percentage by invoking convert_to_percent() method, and the result is printed.

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