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nmon VS lsof

Compare nmon VS lsof and see what are their differences

nmon

This systems administrator, tuner, benchmark tool gives you a huge amount of important performance...

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
l
lsof

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

Rating
0 reviews
Alternatives Is it good?
Kechie
Kechie Inventory Management sponsored

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, nmon seems to be more popular. It has been mentioned 2 times since March 2021.

social mentions
2 vs 0
Monitoring Tools popularity
88% vs 12%
alternatives listed
40 vs 22

Base details

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

nmon
l
lsof
Website nmon.sourceforge.io people.freebsd.org
Listed in
Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools OS & Utilities Performance Monitoring +1
Monitoring Tools Command Line Tools Performance Monitoring Accounting +1

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

nmon 6 features
l
lsof 0 features
  • Comprehensive Performance Analysis
    nmon provides detailed performance analysis for CPU, memory, disks, network, NFS, and other resources, offering a thorough overview of system performance.
  • Real-time Monitoring
    It allows users to monitor system performance in real-time, which is essential for identifying immediate issues and performance bottlenecks.
  • Ease of Use
    The tool is user-friendly with an interactive interface that can be easily navigated for quick access to performance data.
  • Minimal Overhead
    nmon is lightweight and imposes minimal overhead on the system, ensuring that it does not significantly affect the performance metrics it records.
  • Historical Data Analysis
    It can save performance data for later analysis, allowing users to review historical trends and patterns in system performance.
  • Cross-platform Availability
    nmon is available on multiple Unix-based systems, including AIX and Linux, making it versatile for different environments.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Graphical Interface
    nmon lacks advanced graphical visualization options, making it less suitable for users who prefer graphical data representation.
  • Complex Data Interpretation
    The detailed and comprehensive data output can be complex to interpret for users who are not familiar with system performance metrics.
  • Manual Data Conversion Required
    To generate graphical reports, users must export nmon data and process it with external tools like Excel or other analyzers, which adds extra steps.
  • Initial Learning Curve
    New users might face a learning curve to fully understand and utilize all the capabilities and options available in nmon.
  • Limited to Unix-based Systems
    As nmon is primarily designed for Unix-based systems, it cannot be used directly on non-Unix systems like Windows.

No features have been listed yet.

Analysis

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

nmon
l
lsof

No analysis of nmon yet.

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

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

nmon 3 videos + Add
l
lsof 2 videos + Add

Nmon - Terminal-Based System Performance Monitor

More videos

  • - Turbocharge nmon Analysis with onTune nmon Analyzer.
  • - NMON Performance Monitoring Tool for Linux Shell - BASH

8 Basic lsof Commands Every Sysadmin Needs to Know

More videos

  • - HakTip - Network monitoring in Linux with lsof

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
nmon
l
lsof
88% 88%
Monitoring Tools
12% 12%
80% 80%
Command Line Tools
20% 20%
0% 0%
Performance Monitoring
100% 100%
100% 100%
Tool
0% 0%

User comments

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

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Social recommendations and mentions

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

nmon 2 mentions
l
lsof 0 mentions
  • Ask HN: Resources for Building a Webserver in C?
    The tutorial has been moved to https://nmon.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php?n=Site.Nweb. Thanks for the share. - Source: Hacker News / almost 4 years ago
  • Slackware rice for my old dell laptop
    Sorry for not being clear. I'm talking about this tool here: http://nmon.sourceforge.net/pmwiki.php. Source: about 4 years ago

Tracking lsof since Mar 2021.

Alternatives to nmon and lsof

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

  • psutil

    psutil is a module providing an interface for retrieving information on all running processes and...

    Compare psutil to nmon or lsof:

    psutil vs nmon psutil vs lsof
  • 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 nmon or lsof:

    htop vs nmon htop vs lsof
  • gtop

    System monitoring dashboard for terminal

    Compare gtop to nmon or lsof:

    gtop vs nmon gtop vs lsof
  • 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 nmon or lsof:

    Sysdig vs nmon Sysdig vs lsof
  • i
    iftop

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

    Compare iftop to nmon or lsof:

    iftop vs nmon iftop vs lsof
  • v
    vtop

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

    Compare vtop to nmon or lsof:

    vtop vs nmon vtop vs lsof
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