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perf VS lsof

Compare perf VS lsof and see what are their differences

perf

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

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Alternatives Is it good?
l
lsof

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

Rating
0 reviews
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?

Developer Tools popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
50 vs 22

Base details

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

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

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

perf 5 features
l
lsof 0 features
  • 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.

No features have been listed yet.

Analysis

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

perf
l
lsof

No analysis of perf 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.

perf 3 videos + Add
l
lsof 2 videos + Add

Conan Gives Staff Performance Reviews - CONAN on TBS

More videos

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

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
perf
l
lsof
100% 100%
Developer Tools
0% 0%
0% 0%
Performance Monitoring
100% 100%
65% 65%
Monitoring Tools
35% 35%
100% 100%
OS & Utilities
0% 0%

User comments

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Alternatives to perf and lsof

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

  • DTrace

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

    Compare DTrace to perf or lsof:

    DTrace vs perf DTrace 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 perf or lsof:

    htop vs perf htop vs lsof
  • strace

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

    Compare strace to perf or lsof:

    strace vs perf strace 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 perf or lsof:

    Sysdig vs perf Sysdig vs lsof
  • OpenAI

    GPT-3 access without the wait

    Compare OpenAI to perf or lsof:

    OpenAI vs perf OpenAI vs lsof
  • v
    vtop

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

    Compare vtop to perf or lsof:

    vtop vs perf vtop vs lsof
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