On 5.1, what is the process named "idle"?

[Kris Kennaway]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2003 at 10:05:38PM -0400, Joe Altman wrote:

> > The idle task is the kernel thread that runs when the kernel is not
> > doing anything else more meaningful like running user processes or
> > servicing I/O.  It takes care of running some low-priority tasks like
> > pre-zeroing memory pages in preparation for future demand.
> 
> So, should it be in a constant state of RUN, and consume more than 90%
> of CPU and WCPU for more than twenty four hours?

If your machine is more than 90% idle, yes.

> I've taken another look at this, and just noticed that there are tasks
> with NICE ranging from 52 to -187 in 'top -SU root'...I'm not freaked
> out by this, but note that I read the man page which indicates that
> possible values range from 20 to -20.

Yes, read what the -S option to top does.

Kris
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