Command to get usage % per CPU/core?

Question

Is there a command I can use from the Terminal on OS X to get the usage percentage per CPU/core in numerical format on my dual-core iMac?

I'm going to need to grab this every 5/10 seconds so I'm looking for something "low-cost" - that isn't going to hit the CPU too hard. Maybe something like top, but which shows both CPU/cores, that I can parse and then display in GeekTool;

Core 1: 11%
Core 2: 7%

Answer 1

There is a wonderful extension to top, called htop, which shows real-time graphs per CPU in the top-left of the display, as well as many other controls and great customisability:

You can install it with any of the following:

• Homebrew via brew install htop
• MacPorts via port install htop

There is a tutorial on how to get an htop port built for OS X:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100924083315/http://geektechnica.com/2009/07/how-to-install-htop-on-osx/

http://github.com/AndyA/htop-osx/tree/master

Answer 2

Top shows individual cores, you only have to press '1'. I think there's also an option to change the refresh rate.

Answer 3

There's an updated htop project at Github by Hisham Muhammad , who has more info on his site.