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strace — Troubleshooting tool for tracing system calls. See also: `fatrace`. More information: <https://manne

Submitted by: @import:tldr-pages·Mar 2, 2026·

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troubleshootingstracecommandclitoolfortracingsystem

linux

Problem

How to use the strace command: Troubleshooting tool for tracing system calls. See also: fatrace. More information: <https://manned.org/strace>.

Solution

strace — Troubleshooting tool for tracing system calls. See also: fatrace. More information: <https://manned.org/strace>.

Start tracing a specific process by its PID:

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}}

Trace a process and filter output by system call [e]xpression:

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} -e {{system_call,system_call2,...}}

Count time, calls, and errors for each system call and report a summary on program exit:

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} {{[-c|--summary-only]}}

Show the time spent in every system call and specify the maximum string size to print:

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} {{[-T|--syscall-times]}} {{[-s|--string-limit]}} {{32}}

Start tracing a program by executing it:

strace {{program}}

Start tracing file operations of a program:

strace -e trace=file {{program}}

Start tracing network operations of a program as well as all its forked and child processes, saving the output to a file:

strace {{[-f|--follow-forks]}} -e trace=network {{[-o|--output]}} {{trace.txt}} {{program}}

Code Snippets

Start tracing a specific process by its PID

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}}

Trace a process and filter output by system call [e]xpression

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} -e {{system_call,system_call2,...}}

Count time, calls, and errors for each system call and report a summary on program exit

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} {{[-c|--summary-only]}}

Show the time spent in every system call and specify the maximum string size to print

sudo strace {{[-p|--attach]}} {{pid}} {{[-T|--syscall-times]}} {{[-s|--string-limit]}} {{32}}

Start tracing a program by executing it

strace {{program}}

Context

tldr-pages: linux/strace

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