How to use strace ?

Posted by e-satis on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by e-satis
Published on 2008-10-06T16:07:41Z Indexed on 2010/03/25 21:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 624

Filed under:

linux

|

debug

A collegue told me once that the last option when everything has failed to debug on linux was to use strace.

I tried to learn the science there is behind this strange tool but I am not a system admin guru and I Don't really get results.

So what is it exactly and what does it do ?

How to use it ? In which case ?

How to understand the output and process it ?

In brief, how does this stuff work ? In simple words.

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about debug

I can't install using Wubi due to permission denied error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I can't install ubuntu 11.10 inside my windows 7. It shows permission denied while installation. It gave a log file having the following data: 03-29 20:19 DEBUG TaskList: # Running tasklist... 03-29 20:19 DEBUG TaskList: ## Running select_target_dir... 03-29 20:19 INFO WindowsBackend: Installing… >>> More
IIS 7.5 , Tomcat 7 - Isapi redirector - Fail Over - sticky sessions

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have two instances of Tomcat 7.0.8 running in the same machine (Tomcat7A and Tomcat7B) and IIS 7.5 acting as front-end load-balancer with isapi-redirector 1.2.31, running on Windows 2008 R2. When i disconnect the instance wich is handling a request i can see a new instance being assigned with the… >>> More
Wubi and Vista 64 bits can't work

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
First of all, I have posted this issue at Ubuntu Forum without success yet. Hello, I have downloaded "kubuntu-9.10-desktop-amd64.iso" and I have mounted it on my Windows Vista 64 bits Ultimate. I have downloaded wubi 9.10. The problem is when installing, it crash after few time. Here is the log… >>> More
why i7-860 is two times slower than E3-1220?

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have financical trading software. It decodes fast/fix messages. I'm running same binaries on two different machines on very similar set of data. Software receive "messages" and decodes them. The general rule - longer message takes more time to decode: i7-860, Windows 7: Debug 18:23:48.8047325… >>> More
dynamic multiple instance of swfupload (firefox vs IE)

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
We have this dynamic uploader which creates a new instance of swfupload. I'm a little bit confused with the outputs produced by firefox and ie. Firefox have the same output as chrome, safari and opera. Whenever I clicked a button for adding a new instance, the previous instances of swfupload in… >>> More