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SystemTap VS perf

Compare SystemTap VS perf and see what are their differences

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Contents:
  1. » Base Details
  2. » Videos
  3. » Reviews
  4. » Alternatives

SystemTap logo SystemTap

SystemTap provides instrumentation for a live running kernel and user-space applications.

perf logo perf

Perf is a simple app monitoring solution paired with meaningful alerts.
  • SystemTap Landing page
    Landing page //
    2019-05-11
  • perf Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-12

SystemTap features and specs

  • Powerful Kernel and User Space Tracing
    SystemTap provides comprehensive capabilities for tracing and monitoring both kernel and user space activities, enabling detailed insights into system behavior.
  • Script Language Flexibility
    SystemTap uses a custom scripting language, allowing users to write and customize their own probes and handlers for tailored performance analysis.
  • Dynamic Probes
    It allows dynamic insertion of probes into a running system, making it possible to analyze live systems without a reboot.
  • Open Source and Community Support
    As an open-source tool, SystemTap benefits from community contributions and support, ensuring regular updates and a wealth of shared scripts and examples.
  • Wide Range of Use Cases
    SystemTap can be used for profiling, debugging, and performance monitoring across various subsystems, making it versatile for different use cases.

Possible disadvantages of SystemTap

  • Complexity of Usage
    The learning curve for SystemTap can be steep, especially for users unfamiliar with its scripting language and kernel-level operations.
  • Potential for System Instability
    Mistakes in SystemTap scripts can potentially lead to system instability or crashes, given the tool's deep access to the kernel.
  • Limited Documentation
    Although there is community support, some users might find the existing documentation insufficient, particularly when handling complex scenarios.
  • Compatibility Issues
    SystemTap may face compatibility issues with newer or heavily customized kernels, requiring additional patches or configurations.
  • Performance Overhead
    While generally efficient, SystemTap may introduce noticeable performance overhead when conducting extensive tracing on production systems.

perf features and specs

  • 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 of perf

  • 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.

SystemTap videos

+ Add

Product Overviews: Using Systemtap

More videos:

  • Review - RHEL Developers: RHEL SystemTap Overview
  • Review - What is my system doing - Full System Observability with SystemTap

perf videos

+ Add

Conan Gives Staff Performance Reviews - CONAN on TBS

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to SystemTap and perf)

SystemTap

perf

IDE
49 49%
IDE
51% 51
Monitoring Tools
34 34%
Monitoring Tools
66% 66
OS & Utilities
49 49%
OS & Utilities
51% 51
Software Development
100 100%
Software Development
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using SystemTap and perf. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, SystemTap seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 3 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

SystemTap mentions (3)

  • What are some tools to create code diagrams/graphs/(static or dynamic) call graphs when analyzing c++ code? Any level of automation would be useful here, but manual editing is also preferred. I see Visual Studio Code Graph but this is an option for Windows mainly. Doxygen, perftools?
    Eclipse seems to have a Callgraph plug-in (for execution traces), although it is based on SystemTap, which is only for Linux. Source: over 2 years ago
  • Valve Did the IMPOSSIBLE... Anti-Cheat on Linux - WAN Show September 24, 2021
    They can use DKMS or their own version of systemtap so not they don't have to release the code. Source: about 4 years ago
  • Frozenbyte are now telling Linux users to use Proton, even for their older games
    Since these are kernel anticheats I don't know how they're going to make it work though. Maybe BE and EAC will ship signed code that Valve lets run outside of the Win32 environment, possibly just as the root user or with their own version of systemtap to get into the kernel. Source: about 4 years ago

perf mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of perf yet. Tracking of perf recommendations started around Mar 2021.

What are some alternatives?

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

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

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

ftrace - A function tracer for the Linux kernel.

Specto - Specto is a desktop application that will watch configurable events (such as website updates...

ltrace - ltrace intercepts and records dynamic library calls which are called by an executed process and the...

API Monitor - API Monitor is a software that monitors and displays API calls made by applications and services. Its a powerful tool for seeing how Windows and other applications work or tracking down problems that you have in your own applications

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