lsof VS psutil

Compare lsof VS psutil and see what are their differences

Rating: 0 reviews

Alternatives Is it good?

Rating: 0 reviews
Pricing: Open source

Alternatives Is it good?

Hyperview

DCIM software reinvented. sponsored

Which is more popular?

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

social mentions: 0 vs 1
Command Line Tools popularity: 17% vs 83%
alternatives listed: 22 vs 46

Base details

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

	l lsof	psutil
Website	people.freebsd.org	github.com
Pricing	—	Open source
Listed in	Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools Performance Monitoring Accounting +1	Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools OS & Utilities Performance Monitoring +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

lsof 0 features

psutil 5 features

No features have been listed yet.

Cross-Platform Compatibility
Psutil is designed to work across different operating systems including Linux, Windows, and macOS, providing a unified API for system monitoring.
Comprehensive Functionality
It offers a wide range of features for monitoring system performance metrics such as CPU usage, memory, disks, network, and system sensors.
Active Maintenance and Support
Psutil is actively maintained with regular updates and bug fixes, ensuring that it remains reliable and up-to-date with new system metrics and features.
Well-Documented
The library comes with extensive documentation and examples, making it easier for developers to integrate and utilize its functionalities.
Pythonic API
Psutil provides a clear and Pythonic interface, allowing Python developers to easily integrate system monitoring capabilities into their applications.

Possible disadvantages

Resource Intensive
While providing extensive monitoring capabilities, psutil can be resource-intensive, potentially impacting system performance when monitoring frequently or on resource-constrained systems.
Platform-Specific Limitations
Some functionality may not be available on all platforms, requiring platform-specific considerations or workarounds in application development.
Requires Administrative Privileges
Certain metrics and functionalities may require administrative privileges, potentially limiting usage in restricted environments or without proper permissions.
Version Compatibility
There may be compatibility issues between different versions of psutil and Python, requiring careful management of dependencies in larger projects.

Analysis

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

lsof

psutil

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 psutil yet.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

lsof 2 videos + Add

psutil 0 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

psutil

17% 17%

Command Line Tools

83% 83%

11% 11%

Monitoring Tools

89% 89%

100% 100%

Performance Monitoring

0% 0%

Tool

100% 100%

User comments

Share your experience with using lsof and psutil. 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

psutil 1 mention

Tracking lsof since Mar 2021.

Profiling Python code with memory_profiler
It uses the psutil library (or can use tracemalloc or posix) to access process information in a cross platform way, so it works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. - Source: dev.to / over 5 years ago

Alternatives to lsof and psutil

When comparing lsof and psutil, 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 psutil:

htop vs lsof htop vs psutil
nmon
This systems administrator, tuner, benchmark tool gives you a huge amount of important performance...

Compare nmon to lsof or psutil:

nmon vs lsof nmon vs psutil
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 psutil:

Sysdig vs lsof Sysdig vs psutil
gtop
System monitoring dashboard for terminal

Compare gtop to lsof or psutil:

gtop vs lsof gtop vs psutil
v

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

Compare vtop to lsof or psutil:

vtop vs lsof vtop vs psutil
i

iftop
iftop does for network usage what top(1) does for CPU usage.

Compare iftop to lsof or psutil:

iftop vs lsof iftop vs psutil