home | help
TRUSS(1)		     General Commands Manual			TRUSS(1)

NAME
     truss -- trace system calls

SYNOPSIS
     truss [-faedDS] [-o file] [-s strsize] -p pid
     truss [-faedDS] [-o file] [-s strsize] command [args]

DESCRIPTION
     The  truss  utility traces the system calls called by the specified process
     or program.  Output is to the specified output file, or standard  error  by
     default.	It  does this by stopping and restarting the process being moni-
     tored via ptrace(2).

     The options are as follows:

     -f      Trace  descendants  of  the  original  traced  process  created  by
	     fork(2), vfork(2), etc.

     -a      Show  the argument strings that are passed in each execve(2) system
	     call.

     -e      Show the environment strings that are passed in each execve(2) sys-
	     tem call.

     -d      Include timestamps in the output showing the time elapsed since the
	     trace was started.

     -D      Include timestamps in the output showing the time elapsed since the
	     last recorded event.

     -S      Do not display information about signals received by  the	process.
	     (Normally, truss displays signal as well as system call events.)

     -o file
	     Print the output to the specified file instead of standard error.

     -s strsize
	     Display strings using at most strsize characters.	If the buffer is
	     larger,  "..." will be displayed at the end of the string.  The de-
	     fault strsize is 32.

     -p pid  Follow the process specified by pid instead of a new command.

     command [args]
	     Execute command and trace the system calls  of  it.   (The  -p  and
	     command options are mutually exclusive.)

EXAMPLES
     # Follow the system calls used in echoing "hello"
	   $ truss /bin/echo hello
     # Do the same, but put the output into a file
	   $ truss -o /tmp/truss.out /bin/echo hello
     # Follow an already-running process
	   $ truss -p 1

SEE ALSO
     kdump(1), ktrace(1), ptrace(2)

HISTORY
     The  truss command was written by Sean Eric Fagan for FreeBSD.  It was mod-
     eled after similar commands available for System V Release 4 and SunOS.

FreeBSD 7.0			 January 2, 2004			TRUSS(1)

home | help