> I'm using a /bin/sh function to generate a the cpu utilization 
> 
> util () { # CPU Utilization
>  idle=$(echo "2 k $(top -b -d2 | grep '^CPU states' | awk '{print $11}' | sed 's/%//') 1 + p" | dc)
>  echo "2 k 1 $idle / p"  | dc ;}
> 
> That returns the inverse of the cpu idle % found in top.  I add
> 1 to the value before I invert it to prevent divide by zero, so
> output is pretty much between 0 and 1.
> 
> Running two top reports seems a pretty inefficient way to get the
> value.  I think I can tune top a bit, but is there a more direct
> way to get the measurement?

Maybe "sysctl kern.cp_time" ?

  Jeremy C. Reed