Sunday 15 April 2012

Using Strace in linux

The following article explains the usage of strace command for troubleshooting in linux:
http://www.hokstad.com/5-simple-ways-to-troubleshoot-using-strace.html

strace is a tool for tracing system calls and signals. It intercepts and records the system calls made by a running process. strace can print a record of each system call, its arguments, and its return value. You can use strace on programs for which you do not have the source since using strace does not require recompilation. It is often useful in instances where a program freezes or otherwise fails to work and offers few clues as to the problem.


Strace Output: Each line starts with a system call name, is followed by its arguments in parenthesis and then has the return value at the end of the line. Errors (which typically have a return value of -1) have the symbolic error name (such as ENOENT in the first line in the example above) as well as a more informative error string appended.



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