Limit CPU load or set process prority

It’s not the first time I get a too much cpu load warning from my hosting. The code is just some random php script with mysql queries, nothing fancy. (THe tables are nothing extraordinary, a few hundred lines maximum and I always limit them if requested.

I don’t mind if it runs for 0.15 second instead of 0.05, so is there a way I can control process priority or limit cpu load?

Thanks!

Answer

If this is a dameon or program that runs for long time add sleep()/usleep(). A small sleep will reduce your CPU usage dramatically.

Following code will consume a lot of cpu

while(...){
//do stuff
}

Because you are not giving room for CPU to do other task here. change it to

while(...){
   //do stuff
    sleep(1);
}

This will greatly decrease your CPU usage. 1 second for CPU is a lot of time to do other task.

To sleep that extra 0.1 second (0.15 - 0.05) use usleep().

usleep(100000);