In some terminal systems ... the user can keep his program from being pushed down in the priority stack by fiddling with the shift key while he is thinking.
-The Psychology of Computer Programming, Gerald M. Weinberg
Lookbusy is a simple application for generating synthetic load on a Linux system. It can generate fixed, predictable loads on CPUs, keep chosen amounts of memory active, and generate disk traffic in any amounts you need.
Lookbusy is not a load simulator -- that is to say, it does not attempt to model the specific actions of real-world applications for benchmarking or other purposes. Rather, lookbusy makes a system just as busy as you'd like it to be.
When generating CPU load in particular, lookbusy will attempt to keep the CPU(s) at the chosen utilization level, adjusting its own consumption up or down to compensate for other loads on the system. Load can be induced either at a fixed level, or at on a repeating cycle (for example, reflecting a daily traffic load curve.)
Lookbusy free software, released under terms of the GPL.
Devin Carraway <lookbusy @ devin.com>
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