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2022-02-28

Shorter Hacks 8: limit strace to syscalls with files

I often use strace to see which files a program uses and often even more interesting: wich (non-existing) files it fails to open. With the flag -y strace will decode file descriptors, so you see the path of the files and with -e %file strace will only print syscalls that operate on a file: open, stat, chmod, unlink, … Please note that this does not include syscalls operating with a file descriptor like read or write – you can add them: -e %file,read,write but keep in mind there are multiple syscalls capable to reading from or writing to file descriptors.

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The series Shorter Hacks consists of tips and tricks for Linux nerds. Flags, hacks, and features of everyday tools that you might not know already, but that will enrich your life. I currently have a list of around 40 hacks I collected and plan to publish them roughly weekly. In order for this series to continue, please send me your best trick(s). The focus is not on fancy new tools or extensive rc-file content, but little known features in software most people already use. Send them to michael bei schoenitzer punkt de.
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Creative Commons License "Shorter Hacks 8 stace file" by Michael F. Schönitzer is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.