lsof VS DTrace

Compare lsof VS DTrace and see what are their differences

Rating: 0 reviews

Rating: 0 reviews

Measure.sh

Measure helps mobile teams monitor and fix crashes, ANRs, bugs, and performance issues. The open source alternative to Firebase Crashlytics. sponsored

Note: These products don't have any matching categories. If you think this is a mistake, please edit the details of one of the products and suggest appropriate categories.

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, DTrace seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 1 time since March 2021.

social mentions: 0 vs 1
Command Line Tools popularity: 100% vs 0%
alternatives listed: 22 vs 31

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

	l lsof	DTrace
Website	people.freebsd.org	dtrace.org
Listed in	Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools Performance Monitoring Accounting +1	OS & Utilities IDE Software Development Text Editors +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

lsof 0 features

DTrace 5 features

No features have been listed yet.

Comprehensive Observability
DTrace provides a comprehensive view of system behavior by observing metrics across various layers, including the operating system, hardware, and applications.
Real-time Analysis
It allows for real-time tracing and diagnosing, which is critical for identifying performance bottlenecks as they occur.
Low-Overhead
DTrace is designed to have minimal impact on system performance, making it suitable for use in production environments.
Dynamic Instrumentation
It can dynamically enable and disable probes in a live system, which allows detailed monitoring without restarting the system or applications.
Cross-platform Support
Originally developed for Solaris, DTrace has been ported to other operating systems like FreeBSD and MacOS, extending its usability.

Possible disadvantages

Complexity
DTrace's powerful capabilities can make it complex to learn and use effectively, especially for those unfamiliar with its scripting language.
Limited to Supported Platforms
DTrace is not available on all operating systems, limiting its use to those systems that support it.
Security Concerns
Since DTrace can access many parts of the system, there are potential security implications if not properly managed and secured.
Limited GUI Tools
While DTrace is command-line oriented, it lacks advanced built-in graphical interfaces, which can be a drawback for users who prefer visual data representation.
Potential for Misuse
Improper use of DTrace can lead to system instability or performance problems, particularly if inexperienced users enable extensive probes.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

lsof

DTrace

Overall verdict

lsof (List Open Files) is a mature, battle-tested Unix/Linux utility that reliably reveals which files, sockets, and resources are opened by processes, making it an indispensable diagnostic tool for system administrators and developers.

Why this product is good

Provides comprehensive visibility into open files, network sockets, pipes, and devices tied to running processes
Extremely useful for troubleshooting 'device busy' errors, port conflicts, and locating processes holding onto deleted files
Highly portable across many Unix-like systems including FreeBSD, Linux, macOS, and Solaris
Long history of stable, well-maintained releases with extensive documentation and community support
Powerful filtering options let you query by user, process, port, file, or network connection

Recommended for

System administrators diagnosing resource and file-locking issues
Developers debugging network connections and socket usage
Security professionals investigating suspicious process activity and open network ports
Anyone needing to identify which process is using a specific file, directory, or port before unmounting or killing

No analysis of DTrace yet.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

lsof 2 videos + Add

DTrace 3 videos + Add

8 Basic lsof Commands Every Sysadmin Needs to Know

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100

lsof

DTrace

100% 100%

Command Line Tools

0% 0%

OS & Utilities

100% 100%

Performance Monitoring

0% 0%

IDE

100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using lsof and DTrace. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

lsof 0 mentions

DTrace 1 mention

Tracking lsof since Mar 2021.

Mactop
I believe that macOS still ships with DTrace; Xcode Instruments was originally built on top of it. https://dtrace.org (Some people find it easier to write a one-line script that reports the timings that they need; I don't know if it... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago

Alternatives to lsof and DTrace

When comparing lsof and DTrace, you can also consider the following products.

htop
htop - an interactive process viewer for Unix. This is htop, an interactive process viewer for Unix systems. It is a text-mode application (for console or X terminals) and requires ncurses. Latest release: htop 2.

Compare htop to lsof or DTrace:

htop vs lsof htop vs DTrace
OllyDbg
OllyDbg is a 32-bit assembler level analysing debugger.

Compare OllyDbg to lsof or DTrace:

OllyDbg vs lsof OllyDbg vs DTrace
Sysdig
Sysdig is an open source, system-level exploration that capture system state and activity from a running Linux instance, then save, filter and analyze.

Compare Sysdig to lsof or DTrace:

Sysdig vs lsof Sysdig vs DTrace
X64dbg
X64dbg is a debugging software that can debug x64 and x32 applications.

Compare X64dbg to lsof or DTrace:

X64dbg vs lsof X64dbg vs DTrace
v

vtop
vtop is a graphical command-line tool that uses unicode braille to chart CPU and memory usage.

Compare vtop to lsof or DTrace:

vtop vs lsof vtop vs DTrace
SoftICE
SoftICE is a debugging software for windows and DOS that analyzes all your programs and repairs them.

Compare SoftICE to lsof or DTrace:

SoftICE vs lsof SoftICE vs DTrace