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Comparison · DevOps

Liquidsoap vs ps

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Liquidsoap and ps — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Liquidsoap vs ps: at a glance

FeatureLiquidsoapps
SectorDevOpsDevOps
Velocity score6.30.0
Sparks · 30d10
Top themesaudio-streaming, subtitles, icecast, ocamlprocesses, r-lib, processx, cross-platform
Last editorial update2h ago5d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Liquidsoap?

Liquidsoap opens its 2.5 line with subtitles as a first-class content type and a streaming server of its own

The 2.5.x rolling release carries the accumulated 2.5.0 changelog, and it is the largest body of work Liquidsoap has staged in over a year. Subtitles become a dedicated content type alongside audio and video, with native SRT decoding, FFmpeg subtitle encode and decode, bitmap passthrough, callbacks, transformations and dynamic insertion. An Icecast-compatible server ships as icecast.server, with source authentication, mount points, relay and per-listener encoding. Underneath, the source composition model was rewritten: switch, fallback, rotate and random drop their parallel list parameters for per-source methods, and switching now fades by default.

Read the full Liquidsoap trajectory →

What is ps?

ps grew from a process inspector into the thing that reliably kills what you started.

ps is the cross-platform process API underneath processx and callr, and its recent work splits between widening what it can query and hardening the guarantee that a handle still refers to the process you think it does. Version 1.8.0 added interruptible multi-process waiting, vectorised signalling, and graceful kill with a TERM-then-KILL grace period. Version 1.9.3 rebuilt Linux process creation times on a clock pair instead of integer-second boot time, closing a window where two processes could look identical.

Read the full ps trajectory →

Liquidsoap vs ps: editorial side-by-side

L6.3

Liquidsoap opens its 2.5 line with subtitles as a first-class content type and a streaming server of its own

◆ Current state

The 2.5.x rolling release carries the accumulated 2.5.0 changelog, and it is the largest body of work Liquidsoap has staged in over a year. Subtitles become a dedicated content type alongside audio and video, with native SRT decoding, FFmpeg subtitle encode and decode, bitmap passthrough, callbacks, transformations and dynamic insertion. An Icecast-compatible server ships as icecast.server, with source authentication, mount points, relay and per-listener encoding. Underneath, the source composition model was rewritten: switch, fallback, rotate and random drop their parallel list parameters for per-source methods, and switching now fades by default.

◆ Where it's heading

Liquidsoap is expanding on two axes at once. It is broadening what a stream can carry - subtitles are a third content modality in a system that has understood two - and it is moving up the stack from a source that feeds Icecast into something that can be the Icecast. The language work points the same way: a source(_) type for unknown content, callback release semantics, and effect-scoped clocks are the kind of changes made when scripts are getting large enough that lifetime and typing errors cost real production time.

◆ Prediction

The 2.5.0 final should follow the rolling branch within a release cycle, and the migration guide already shipped for the composition parameter changes suggests the breaking surface is considered settled. Watch whether subtitle support reaches the harbor and Icecast server paths, which the current notes do not say.

P
ps
DEVOPS
0.0

ps grew from a process inspector into the thing that reliably kills what you started.

◆ Current state

ps is the cross-platform process API underneath processx and callr, and its recent work splits between widening what it can query and hardening the guarantee that a handle still refers to the process you think it does. Version 1.8.0 added interruptible multi-process waiting, vectorised signalling, and graceful kill with a TERM-then-KILL grace period. Version 1.9.3 rebuilt Linux process creation times on a clock pair instead of integer-second boot time, closing a window where two processes could look identical.

◆ Where it's heading

The direction is from observation to control. Early releases in view are per-process queries — CPU times, memory, affinity — and the newer ones are orchestration: wait on many processes with a timeout, signal a list of handles at once, terminate a tree politely before forcing it. The create-time precision work is what makes that safe, since a handle's identity is a PID plus a start time, and a one-second resolution start time is not enough to rule out PID reuse on a busy machine.

◆ Prediction

Expect the remaining platform-specific gaps in ps_status() and ps_apps() to close before any new capability area opens, since the recent additions have all been driven by processx issue reports.

Alternatives to Liquidsoap and ps

Other DevOps products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Liquidsoap or ps.

See all Liquidsoap alternatives → · See all ps alternatives →

Recent activity from Liquidsoap and ps

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 14h agoLiquidsoapSubtitles become a content type and Liquidsoap ships its own Icecast server
  2. 9d agoLiquidsoapLiquidsoap Rolling Release 2.4.x
  3. 2mo agoLiquidsoapQueue removal commands and O(1) clock propagation in Liquidsoap 2.4.5
  4. 4mo agopsSub-second process create times on Linux
  5. 4mo agoLiquidsoapLiquidsoap 2.4.4 supersedes 2.4.3 days after release
  6. 4mo agoLiquidsoapRaw string literals arrive in Liquidsoap 2.4.3
  7. 4mo agopsps_string() for unique process identification
  8. 7mo agoLiquidsoapLiquidsoap 2.4.1 opens the stabilization phase
  9. 1y agopsBuild correctly on Alpine Linux
  10. 1y agopsmaxrss reporting and selectable columns in ps()
  11. 1y agopsInstallable again on unsupported platforms
  12. 1y agopsMulti-process waiting, vectorised signals and graceful kill

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Liquidsoap and ps?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. Liquidsoap is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Liquidsoap better than ps?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Liquidsoap is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 1 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other DevOps products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Liquidsoap?

Top Liquidsoap alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Liquidsoap alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/liquidsoap for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to ps?

Top ps alternatives in DevOps are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ps alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/ps-r for the full list with editorial commentary on each.