nmon as a Linux alternative to Process Monitor
Updated
Our verdict
nmon is not a direct replacement for Process Monitor because it lacks real-time file, registry, and system call tracing. It is a performance monitoring tool, not a forensic debugger. If your goal is to debug why a specific file failed to open or track registry changes, nmon will fail. However, if you need to monitor overall system health, CPU, memory, and disk I/O per process in real-time, nmon is excellent. It is lightweight and scriptable, making it ideal for sysadmins checking resource usage, but useless for application-level debugging tasks that Process Monitor handles.
- License
- GPL-2.0
- Price
- Free
- Latest version
- 16s
- Rating
- —
What works the same
- Real-time monitoring of system activity
- Process-level tracking and statistics
- Ability to export data for later analysis
- Low overhead during live monitoring
- Filtering capabilities for specific processes
What is different
- No real-time file system access logging (open/read/write events)
- No registry or configuration file change tracking
- No system call tracing capabilities
- Focuses on aggregate metrics (CPU, RAM, Disk) rather than individual event streams
- Console-based interface instead of GUI with detailed event lists
Opening your Process Monitor files
nmon does not open or export Process Monitor (.PML) files. It generates its own CSV or JSON logs. You cannot import Process Monitor data into nmon, nor can you export nmon data in a format that Process Monitor can read. If you have existing Process Monitor logs, you must analyze them on Windows or use a script to parse the PML file separately, as there is no native interoperability between these two distinct tools.
Switching from Process Monitor to nmon, step by step
- Install nmon via your package manager (e.g., apt install nmon)
- Run nmon in interactive mode to monitor overall system health
- Use the 'p' key to view process-specific CPU and memory usage
- Configure logging to CSV for long-term performance analysis
- For file-level debugging, switch to strace or inotifywait instead of nmon
Key features of nmon
- Real‑time CPU, memory, disk, network, and process stats
- Configurable refresh rate
- Supports logging to CSV for post‑analysis
- Displays I/O per device and per process
- Keyboard shortcuts for navigation
- Can run as a background daemon
- Supports multiple output formats (CSV, JSON)
How to install nmon on Linux
sudo apt install nmonsudo apt install nmonsudo dnf install nmonsudo pacman -S nmonsudo zypper install nmonFrequently asked questions
Can nmon show which process opened a specific file?
No. nmon shows disk I/O per process but not individual file open events. Use lsof or inotifywait for that.
Is nmon suitable for forensic analysis of malware?
No. It lacks the event-level granularity needed for forensics. Use strace, auditd, or sysdig for tracking malicious behavior.
Does nmon have a graphical interface?
No, it is a console application. There are third-party web dashboards for nmon data, but the core tool is text-based.