FlameGraph

Name: FlameGraph
Author: Brendan Gregg

A command-line toolkit that turns profiled stack traces into interactive flame graphs.

By Brendan Gregg

Free Open sourceCommand line

Official websitegithub.com

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Alternatives

perfA Linux command-line tool for profiling and performance analysis using hardware counters and kernel tracepoints.
flamebearerflamebearer summarizes JavaScript CPU profiles and highlights costly code paths, while FlameGraph supports profiled stack traces more broadly.
samplyA command-line CPU profiler that opens recorded profiles in the Firefox profiler interface.
py-spyA sampling profiler that shows what a running Python process is doing without restarting it.
uftraceA function tracer for recording and analyzing program execution, including call graphs and timing.

See all alternatives

About FlameGraph

FlameGraph converts stack samples from profilers such as Linux perf, DTrace and SystemTap into flame graphs. These visualizations show where programs spend time; you can click a box to zoom into a stack frame or search and highlight matching frames.

The toolkit includes scripts for folding stack traces from different profilers and generating the graph. It suits developers and system administrators investigating performance.

Strengths

Works with stack samples from several profiling tools
Lets you zoom into frames and search the graph
Includes converters for multiple stack trace formats

Limitations

Requires stack samples from a separate profiler

Details

Pricing: FreeFree under the CDDL-1.0 license.
License: CDDL-1.0
Developer: Brendan Gregg
Platforms: Command line
How it runs: Downloadable app
Best suited for: Developers tracing where a program spends CPU time
Categories: System monitoring, Developer tools
Last verified: October 8, 2026
Added: October 8, 2026
Provenance: Selected from the Homebrew formula
Sources: github.com/brendangregg/FlameGraph

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