Accuracy/reliability of "top" CPU usage numbers

[Grant Edwards]

On 2014-11-14, Grant Edwards <grant.b.edwards at gmail.com> wrote:

> Almost all of the "real" work done on this target is clock
> synchronized, so how does one determine how much CPU is being used
> and by whom?

The short answer is that the values shown by top are almost completely
useless in this scenario.  There isn't anything top can do about it,
since the limitation is in the data gathered by the kernel itself.
What may be surprising (until you think about it for a few seconds),
is that running a single clock-driven app can completely throw off the
values shown for "normal" programs.

A low-priority idle program can be used to determine how much idle CPU
time is available, but determining who is using how much seems to be
limited to watching the idle program output change as you start/stop
programs about which you want info.

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Grant Edwards               grant.b.edwards        Yow! Here I am in 53
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