# uber-archive/pyflame

🔥 Pyflame: A Ptracing Profiler For Python. This project is deprecated and not maintained.

Repository: https://github.com/uber-archive/pyflame
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/pyflame
Language: C++
License: Apache-2.0
License Family: permissive
Topics: ptrace, uwsgi, flame-charts, fedora, docker, debian, profiler, python
Archived: true
Last push: 2019-12-03T07:08:22+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 10/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 35, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3676, "days_push": 2465, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: no_releases, archived
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2982, forks 240 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:33.871723+00:00)

## What it is
Pyflame is a high-performance sampling profiler for Python implemented in C++ that uses Linux ptrace to capture call stacks without instrumentation, producing flame graph data. It can attach to running processes (including embedded interpreters like uWSGI) with low overhead, but the project is deprecated and unmaintained.

## Use cases
- profile a running python process in production
- generate flame graphs for python code
- profile python program without modifying source code
- profile uwsgi embedded python interpreter
- profile multithreaded python application
- find cpu hotspots in python service

## When to choose
- you need to attach to an already-running Python process on Linux without instrumentation
- you need low-overhead production profiling with flame graph output
- you're profiling embedded interpreters like uWSGI on an older Python stack

## When to avoid
- you're on macOS or Windows - it relies on Linux ptrace
- you want a maintained tool with support for modern Python versions
- you need memory profiling rather than CPU/call-stack sampling

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: abandoned
- function: benchmarking, monitoring, developer-tools
- domain: developer-tools, performance
- platform: cpp, python, cli
- tags: profiler, flame-graphs, ptrace, sampling-profiler, python-profiling, deprecated, command-line, linux, docker

## Member repositories
- uber-archive/pyflame (main) score 10

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:33.871723+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T07:31:28.827285+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/uber-archive/pyflame (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:33.871723+00:00, sha 3427e5e02d49)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.