Trace system calls

bash

strace -p 12345

Explanation

Powerful for seeing what a stuck or failing process is trying to do.

Learn the surrounding workflow

Compare similar commands or jump into common fixes when this command is part of a bigger troubleshooting path.

Same sheet · prioritizing Performance Monitoring and Troubleshooting

Show the current absolute path.

Create an empty file if it does not exist.

Concatenate and print files to standard output.

Print lines matching a pattern.

Show permissions and ownership on files.

List files and directories.