considering that there is a simple libc call getloadavg()
... then it should be easy to write a few lines of XS and get said information. If you then release said module on CPAN, others can benefit from it as well.

But is getloadavg() available everywhere? Your request is for a portable way. This suggests it doesn't.

In reply to Re^3: portable way to get system load average by JavaFan
in thread portable way to get system load average by loadaverage

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