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lsof VS perf

Compare lsof VS perf and see what are their differences

l
lsof

Lsof lists open files for running UNIX processes. It is a

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
perf

Perf is a simple app monitoring solution paired with meaningful alerts.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Alternatives Is it good?
Netumo
Ensure healthy website performance, uptime, and free from vulnerabilities. Automatic checks for SSL Certificates, domains and monitor issues with your websites all from one console and get instant notifications on any issues. sponsored

Which is more popular?

Performance Monitoring popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
22 vs 50

Base details

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

l
lsof
perf
Website people.freebsd.org archive.kernel.org
Pricing —
Open source
Listed in
Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools Performance Monitoring Accounting +1
Monitoring Tools Developer Tools OS & Utilities IDE +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

l
lsof 0 features
perf 5 features

No features have been listed yet.

  • Comprehensive Performance Analysis
    Perf is a powerful tool that allows for detailed analysis of CPU performance, helping to identify bottlenecks and optimize code efficiently.
  • Wide Range of Features
    It provides features like tracing, profiling and performance monitoring, offering a versatile toolkit for developers and system administrators.
  • Kernel Support
    Being integrated into the Linux kernel means that perf has native support and access to a wide array of low-level hardware counters and events.
  • Flexible Configuration
    Perf supports a wide array of event configurations, allowing users to tailor their profiling to their specific performance analysis needs.
  • Open Source and Community-Driven
    As an open-source tool, perf benefits from community contributions and frequent updates, keeping it reliable and up-to-date with current technologies.

Possible disadvantages

  • Complexity
    Perf can be complex to use for beginners, requiring a steep learning curve to effectively utilize all of its features and interpret the results.
  • Limited to Linux
    Perf is designed for the Linux operating system, limiting its use and accessibility for developers working in other environments like Windows or macOS.
  • Overhead Concerns
    While generally efficient, perf can introduce some measurement overhead, which might impact the performance of the system being analyzed.
  • Sparse Documentation
    Although improving, the documentation for perf can be sparse or fragmented, making it harder for new users to understand how to leverage all of its capabilities effectively.
  • Complex Output
    The output generated by perf can be quite detailed and complex, necessitating additional tools or scripts to parse and visualize the data effectively.

Analysis

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

l
lsof
perf

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 perf yet.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

l
lsof 2 videos + Add
perf 3 videos + Add

8 Basic lsof Commands Every Sysadmin Needs to Know

More videos

  • - HakTip - Network monitoring in Linux with lsof

Conan Gives Staff Performance Reviews - CONAN on TBS

More videos

  • - Perf Review
  • - THE BALM AUTOBALM PIC PERF EYESHADOW PALETTE TUTORIAL, SWATCHES & REVIEW

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
l
lsof
perf
100% 100%
Performance Monitoring
0% 0%
0% 0%
Developer Tools
100% 100%
35% 35%
Monitoring Tools
65% 65%
100% 100%
Command Line Tools
0% 0%

User comments

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Alternatives to lsof and perf

When comparing lsof and perf, 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 perf:

    htop vs lsof htop vs perf
  • DTrace

    DTrace is a performance analysis and troubleshooting tool for Solaris, Mac OS X and FreeBSD.

    Compare DTrace to lsof or perf:

    DTrace vs lsof DTrace vs perf
  • 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 perf:

    Sysdig vs lsof Sysdig vs perf
  • strace

    Trace system calls and signals. A diagnostic, debugging and instructional userspace utility.

    Compare strace to lsof or perf:

    strace vs lsof strace vs perf
  • v
    vtop

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

    Compare vtop to lsof or perf:

    vtop vs lsof vtop vs perf
  • OpenAI

    GPT-3 access without the wait

    Compare OpenAI to lsof or perf:

    OpenAI vs lsof OpenAI vs perf
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