# Pprof() error?

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Tags:** pprof\
**Created:** [December 5, 2019, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900 "2019-12-05T11:17:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![tomtom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tomtom/32/5106_2.png) [@tomtom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomtom)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 11:17am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/1 "2019-12-05T11:17:40Z")

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when I use the `PProf` package, I see the following problem:

```julia
julia> pprof()
ERROR: SystemError: opening file "profile.pb.gz": Permission denied

```

I’m using MacOS  
help please. thanks.

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**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 11:34am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/2 "2019-12-05T11:34:43Z")

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Check that you have the right user and permissions for that file.

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**Author:** ![tomtom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tomtom/32/5106_2.png) [@tomtom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomtom)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 11:36am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/3 "2019-12-05T11:36:00Z")

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I’m the only user (also the admin).

btw, where is the file located?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tamas\_Papp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tamas_papp/32/25949_2.png) [@Tamas\_Papp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Tamas_Papp)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 11:37am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/4 "2019-12-05T11:37:43Z")

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Usually it is put in the working directory (AFAIK).

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomtom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tomtom/32/5106_2.png) [@tomtom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomtom)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 11:42am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/5 "2019-12-05T11:42:38Z")

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```julia
julia> pwd()
"/private/var/log"

julia> cd("/Users/Thomas/Documents")

julia> pprof()
"profile.pb.gz"

julia> Main binary filename not available.
Serving web UI on http://localhost:57599

```

ok now I changed the working directory so that the file could be created.

but, I still get `Main binay filename not available` (is it an error?). and I could **not** find any browser window opened ???

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomtom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tomtom/32/5106_2.png) [@tomtom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomtom)\
**Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 1:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/6 "2019-12-05T13:01:28Z")

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I know why: I have to install `graphviz`. thanks…

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**Author:** ![vchuravy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/vchuravy/32/8_2.png) [@vchuravy](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vchuravy)\
**Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/7 "2019-12-06T17:22:20Z")

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Ah we should probably print which directory we were trying to write to,  
and install all dependencies [https://github.com/vchuravy/PProf.jl/issues/16](https://github.com/vchuravy/PProf.jl/issues/16)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tomtom](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tomtom/32/5106_2.png) [@tomtom](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tomtom)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/8 "2019-12-08T03:40:12Z")

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> [@vchuravy](#):
>
> we should probably print which directory we were trying to write to,  
> and install all dependencies

that would be great 😀

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**Author:** ![NHDaly](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/nhdaly/32/1413_2.png) [@NHDaly](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/NHDaly)\
**Post date:** [December 13, 2019, 5:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/pprof-error/31900/9 "2019-12-13T17:34:14Z")

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> [@tomtom](#):
>
> but, I still get `Main binary filename not available` (is it an error?)

This isn’t an error. It’s because we’re only passing `pprof` a _profile_, not also the binary that generated the profile. We could probably fix that with the right flags in our pprof invocation, but we haven’t looked into it.