How to export Node.js V8 profiling info to Chrome's Dev Tools performance profile?

Question

According to Node.js documentation profiling info can be generated using node --prof myapp.js.

Is there a way to convert from this generated format to Chrome's Dev Tools performance profile? It expects to load a JSON format while the format generated by node --prof is not JSON.

Answer 1

No, the output generated by the --prof flag is not what DevTools expects, and AFAIK there's no way to convert it.

However, there is also the --inspect flag, allowing you to use DevTools with Node, including profiling. I haven't tried it myself, but a quick search turns up e.g.:

• https://medium.com/@paul_irish/debugging-node-js-nightlies-with-chrome-devtools-7c4a1b95ae27
• https://developer.ibm.com/languages/node-js/tutorials/learn-nodejs-debugging-and-profiling-node-applications/#debugger-2-chrome-devtools

Answer 2

There are two ways for export .cpuprofile:

• use cli options --cpu-prof
• use inspector module. See the example usage