Why are load averages on macOS always over 1.0

Solution 1:

My load averages are routinely 0.29 so we would need to look at your build and details to know why you’re over 1.0.

bmike@dev ~ % iostat 10
              disk0       cpu    load average
    KB/t  tps  MB/s  us sy id   1m   5m   15m
   12.20    7  0.08   0  0 99  0.13 0.16 0.18
    5.23    9  0.04   0  0 100  0.11 0.15 0.18
    5.18    2  0.01   0  1 99  0.10 0.15 0.18
    0.00    0  0.00   0  0 100  0.08 0.14 0.17
    0.00    0  0.00   0  0 100  0.07 0.14 0.17

The code that became macOS code measures relative task scheduling as opposed to core loading which is different than Linux I suppose. You will want to recalibrate your scripts if you take action upon this measure.

• https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/Darwin/Conceptual/KernelProgramming/Mach/Mach.html
• http://www.undeadly.org/cgi?action=article&sid=20090715034920

Asking why is tough since engineers committed the code and it shipped. Im not entirely sure if this is a BSD thing as much as Mach kernel, but it’s real on macOS.