Fifth column of /proc/loadavg?
linux
Solution
The last value is the pid of the currently active process (while showing the contents of `/proc/loadavg`) which is likely a `cat` process
cat /proc/loadavg
which has already terminated while you are reading the results on screen.
Update:
I played around with it to prove that it is indeed the cat process. I simply used `less`, kept it open and tried to investigate the proc file system. I can only say the pid shown in `loadavg` was not the PID of `less` which I thought. Still true is what I said: the process listed there is current active process and it has been terminated already. But it seems not the PID of the `cat` process.
Problem
I came across several discussions(linux /proc/loadavg) and articles telling that the fifth column of `/proc/loadavg` is the process id of the most recent process. But I couldnot find a folder in the `/proc` filesystem with that `PID`. Also on trying `cat /proc/loadavg` the fifth column goes on increasing sequentially each time. Why is it so?