gprof2dot
Generate a dot graph from the output of several profilers.
Decision gist · record as of 2026-08-14
Yes. gprof2dot is a mature, well-established tool (first released 2009, active maintenance, 3454 GitHub stars) with zero known vulnerabilities, no runtime dependencies, and low install friction. The LGPL license is permissive for most use cases. Install it if you regularly work with profiler output and need to visualize call graphs; the only real prerequisite is having Graphviz installed separately on your system.AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying
Before you install
- Requires Graphviz to be installed separately on your system (not a Python package); Python >=3.8 required.
- Installs with no runtime dependencies and has low friction.
- Maintenance is active but the author notes limited capacity for new features or issue processing.
License · maintenance · safety
LGPL (copyleft) — Licensed under LGPL (copyleft), which requires derivative works to remain open-source but permits use in proprietary projects as long as the library itself is not modified and distributed.
last release 2025-04-14 (487 days) · last repo commit 2026-08-05 · 3,454 stars
0 known vulnerabilities (OSV.dev, 2026-08-14) · 6,240,383 downloads/mo, #1,950 on PyPI
Alternatives
Verify before relying
pip install gprof2dot
# Convert perf output to PNG
perf record -g -- ./your_program
perf script | gprof2dot -f perf | dot -Tpng -o output.png- Whether the tool handles all profiler formats equally well or if some have better support than others.
- Performance characteristics when processing very large profiling datasets.
- Whether the comparison feature (--compare) is actively maintained or a legacy option.
What it is and what it does
gprof2dot is a command-line tool that reads profiling output from a wide range of profilers—including Linux perf, Valgrind's callgrind, OProfile, Python's built-in profilers, gprof, and others—and converts it into Graphviz dot format for visualization. It acts as a bridge between profiling tools and graph visualization, letting you generate call graphs and flame-graph-like diagrams from raw profiler data.
The tool supports filtering (pruning nodes and edges below thresholds), coloring by hot-spots, function name stripping, and graph comparison for before-and-after performance analysis. It runs on any platform with Python and Graphviz installed, making it a portable way to turn profiler output into publication-ready diagrams. No runtime Python dependencies are required.
Use it for
- Convert Linux perf profiling data into a visual call graph to identify performance bottlenecks.
- Generate Valgrind callgrind output as a dot graph for easier analysis of function call hierarchies.
- Compare two profiling runs side-by-side to see which functions got slower or faster.
- Strip C++ template and parameter noise from demangled function names in call graphs.
- Create publication-ready performance visualization diagrams from raw profiler output.
- Analyze Python profiler output (pstats) as a directed graph for code optimization.
Worth the install?
AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page. Verify before relying on it.
Yes.
gprof2dot is a mature, well-established tool (first released 2009, active maintenance, 3454 GitHub stars) with zero known vulnerabilities, no runtime dependencies, and low install friction. The LGPL license is permissive for most use cases. Install it if you regularly work with profiler output and need to visualize call graphs; the only real prerequisite is having Graphviz installed separately on your system.
Install
gprof2dot on PyPI
Before you install
Installs with no runtime dependencies and has low friction. Maintenance is active but the author notes limited capacity for new features or issue processing.
Requires Graphviz to be installed separately on your system (not a Python package); Python >=3.8 required.
License in practice
Licensed under LGPL (copyleft), which requires derivative works to remain open-source but permits use in proprietary projects as long as the library itself is not modified and distributed.
Quickstart
pip install gprof2dot
# Convert perf output to PNG
perf record -g -- ./your_program
perf script | gprof2dot -f perf | dot -Tpng -o output.pngVerify before relying
- Whether the tool handles all profiler formats equally well or if some have better support than others.
- Performance characteristics when processing very large profiling datasets.
- Whether the comparison feature (--compare) is actively maintained or a legacy option.
Package facts
| License | LGPL copyleft |
| Python support | Supports the current Python release >=3.8 |
| Install friction | Low. Pure-Python wheel |
| Runtime dependencies | None |
| Maintenance | Actively maintained 487 days since the last release |
| Last repo commit | |
| First released | |
| Downloads | 6,240,383 / month, #1,950 on PyPI 30-day window, as of 2026-08-14 |
| Known vulnerabilities | None known OSV.dev, checked 2026-08-14 |
| Classifiers | Development Status :: 6 - MatureEnvironment :: ConsoleIntended Audience :: DevelopersLicense :: OSI Approved :: GNU Lesser General Public License v3 or later (LGPLv3+)Operating System :: OS IndependentProgramming Language :: Python :: 3Topic :: Software Development |
Evidence: gprof2dot-2025.4.14-py3-none-any.whl
Tags
Let your AI agent find packages like this
Example. Real query, live index.
You found this page by searching. An agent finds it by wishing: SkillFed indexes 14,416 PyPI packages by what they can do, searchable in plain language.
wish › “profiler output to graph”
- gprof2dotConverts profiler output from many sources (perf, Valgrind, OProfile,…
- snakevizSnakeViz is a web-based viewer for Python profiling data that…
- torchprofileCounts multiply-accumulate operations (MACs) in PyTorch models by…
Give your agent the search over MCP, or paste the wish link into any chat.
More Software Development packages
Provides backported and experimental type hints for Python 3.9+, allowing use of newer typing features on older Python versions and enabling early experimentation with type system PEPs before they enter the standard library.
NumPy provides an N-dimensional array object and a comprehensive suite of mathematical, linear algebra, Fourier transform, and random number functions for scientific computing in Python.
FastAPI is a Python web framework for building REST APIs using type hints, with automatic request validation, serialization, and interactive API documentation.
Provides a way to document function parameters, class attributes, return types, and variables inline using Python's `Annotated` type hint syntax instead of traditional docstrings.
Typer builds command-line applications from Python functions using type hints, automatically generating help text, argument parsing, and shell completion.
Install it if you are building CLIs in Python.
Distlib provides low-level packaging utilities for building, distributing, and managing Python software—including metadata handling, version specifiers, wheel support, script installation, and dependency resolution.
See also flameprof · graphviz · pydot · pydot-ng · pydotplus · pytest-profiling · GvGen · markdown-graphviz-inline · viztracer · objgraph