Checking Open Ports on Your System #
Need to check which applications are listening on a port? Here’s how you can do it on macOS.
Using lsof
#
The lsof command lists process IDs, ports, and network addresses:
lsof -a -PiTCP -sTCP:LISTEN
Example output:
lsof -a -PiTCP -sTCP:LISTEN
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
rapportd 1063 user 9u IPv4 ... 0t0 TCP *:59797 (LISTEN)
ControlCe 1105 user 8u IPv4 ... 0t0 TCP *:7000 (LISTEN)
com.docke 95796 user 133u IPv6 ... 0t0 TCP *:8000 (LISTEN)
Killing a Process #
Use pkill with the process ID to terminate a process:
pkill -P <PID>
For example:
pkill -P 95796
port-report – A Better Alternative
#
For a more user-friendly tool, try port-report. It provides detailed information, including:
- Port
- Address
- Protocol
- Process ID (PID)
- User
- Command
- Working directory
- Full executable path
Processes are sorted by port in ascending order, and you can kill a process by pressing Enter.
Example output:
┌─────┬─────────┬────────┬─────┬────┬───────────────┬──────────────────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│Port │Address │Protocol│PID │User│Command │Working Directory │Executable Path │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│5000 │* │IPv6 │1105 │501 │ControlCenter │/ │/System/Library/CoreServices/ControlCenter.app/Contents/MacOS/ControlCenter │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│7679 │localhost│IPv6 │79552│501 │Google Drive │/ │/Applications/Google Drive.app/Contents/MacOS/Google Drive │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│11434│localhost│IPv4 │1841 │501 │ollama │/ │/Applications/Ollama.app/Contents/Resources/ollama │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│59797│* │IPv6 │1063 │501 │rapportd │/ │/usr/libexec/rapportd │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│60073│localhost│IPv6 │97495│501 │datagrip │/ │/Users/sebastianscheibe/Applications/DataGrip.app/Contents/MacOS/datagrip │
├─────┼─────────┼────────┼─────┼────┼───────────────┼──────────────────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│64605│localhost│IPv6 │13099│501 │java │/Users/sebastianscheibe/DataGripProjects/M│/Users/sebastianscheibe/Applications/DataGrip.app/Contents/jbr/Contents/Home/bin/java │
└─────┴─────────┴────────┴─────┴────┴───────────────┴──────────────────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
╔════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ Are you sure you want to kill process 1841 (ollama)? ║
║ ║
║ Yes No ║
║ ║
╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
For installation and more details, visit the Github repository