On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 1:12 AM, Nico Kadel-Garcia <[email protected]> wrote: > On Thu, Jun 2, 2011 at 12:48 AM, Theo de Raadt <[email protected]> wrote: >>> > 100% right. The load average calculation has not changed in 25 years. >>> > Anyone who says otherwise hasn't got a single fact on their side. >>> > >>> > What has changed, however, is that the kernel has more kernel threads >>> > running (for instance, ps aguxk, and look at the first few which have >>> > the 'K' flag set in the 'STAT' field. >>> > >>> > Some kernels have decided to not count those threads, others do count >>> > them. Since these kernel threads make various decisions for when to >>> > do their next tasks and how to context switch, the statistical >>> > monitoring of the system which ends up creating load values can get >>> > perturbed. >>> > >>> > That's what this comes down to. >>> >>> Which...... sounds exactly like a change in the load average >>> calculation, due to kernel changes, that has occurred in the last 25 >>> years. >> >> You clearly cannot read. >> >> The calculation has NOT CHANGED. The way that work is done in the >> kernel has changed. >> >> You better get back to class; your potty break is over. > > Then perhaps lean to write. If you're measuring a different > phenomenon, one that has different units, then it's a distinctly > different *calculation* becuase you're measuring a distinct collection > of objects. One may as well add up a restaurant bill, leave out the > tax and tip, and say "it's unchanged because I used the same plus > signs". > > It's particularly confusing, as the original poster was confused, when > trying to comparae "prices", in this case system loads.
Thinking about this. I'm not saying that this implies *OpenBSD* changed its calculaton. As Theo pointed out, other kernels have changed what they report to the "load" tool. So that shifts the measure on other kernels. Perhaps he took this personally.
