Hello, I work on shared linux machines with between 4 and 24 cores. To make best use of them, I use the following code to detect the number of processors from my ruby scripts:

return `cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep processor | wc -l`.to_i

(perhaps there is a pure-ruby way of doing this?)

But sometimes a colleague is using six or eight of the 24 cores. (as seen via top). How can I get an estimate of the number of currently unused processors that I can use without making anyone upset?

Thanks!