jeprof

jeprof is a command-line profiling tool used to analyze heap profile data produced by jemalloc’s heap profiler. It is part of jemalloc’s profiling tooling and, in some environments, is distributed with related performance tooling such as gperftools. jeprof reads a heap profile file and presents a breakdown of memory allocations by call site, function, and call graph, enabling developers to identify allocation hotspots and memory-heavy code paths.

The tool focuses on heap profiling data rather than CPU time. It can generate a plaintext summary showing total allocations and bytes attributed to each function or call site, and it can also output a Graphviz DOT representation of the allocation call graph for visualization. Some versions support different aggregation modes, such as inclusive versus exclusive statistics, which helps in understanding how much memory is allocated within a function versus in its callees.

Usage typically involves running the instrumented program with jemalloc’s profiling enabled to produce a profile file, then invoking jeprof with that file. The resulting output can be used to compare profiles across runs, identify trends, or guide memory optimization efforts. jeprof interoperates with other profiling tools in the same ecosystem and can be used in concert with broader performance analysis workflows.

See also: jemalloc, gperftools, pprof.