diff --git a/lib/util.C b/lib/util.C
index e4a24ad2f2..b4a9cd61d4 100755
--- a/lib/util.C
+++ b/lib/util.C
@@ -813,13 +813,20 @@ int boinc_calling_thread_cpu_time(double& cpu) {
 
 #else
 
+pthread_mutex_t getrusage_mutex=PTHREAD_MUTEX_INITIALIZER;
+
 // Unix: pthreads doesn't seem to provide an API for getting
 // per-thread CPU time.  So just get the process's CPU time
 //
 int boinc_calling_thread_cpu_time(double &cpu_t) {
-    int retval;
+    int retval=1;
     struct rusage ru;
-    retval = getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, &ru);
+// getrusage can return an error, so try a few times if it returns an error.
+    if (!pthread_mutex_trylock(&getrusage_mutex)) {
+        int i=0;
+        while (retval=getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, &ru) && i<10) i++;
+        pthread_mutex_unlock(&getrusage_mutex);
+    }
     if (retval) {
         return ERR_GETRUSAGE;
     }
diff --git a/lib/util.h b/lib/util.h
index ebe8216ae6..ee1aa479ab 100755
--- a/lib/util.h
+++ b/lib/util.h
@@ -28,6 +28,12 @@
 #include <algorithm>
 #include <string>
 
+#ifdef HAVE_PTHREAD
+
+#include <pthread.h>
+
+#endif
+
 #if !defined(HAVE_STRLCPY)
 extern size_t strlcpy(char*, const char*, size_t);
 #endif
@@ -130,6 +136,10 @@ extern void mysql_timestamp(double, char*);
 //
 extern const char* boincerror(int which_error);
 
+#ifdef HAVE_PTHREAD
+extern pthread_mutex_t getrusage_mutex;
+#endif
+
 #ifndef _WIN32
 extern int lookup_group(char*, gid_t& gid);
 extern int check_security(void);