# strace/strace

strace is a diagnostic, debugging and instructional userspace utility for Linux

Repository: https://github.com/strace/strace
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/strace
Language: C
License: NOASSERTION
License Family: other
Last push: 2026-08-20T09:58:46+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 94/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-03T02:20:16.233290+00:00)
- activity 98, release rhythm 86, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 4254, "days_push": 13, "days_rel": 15, "gap_med": 64, "n_releases_24m": 12}
- flags: no_license
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 2677, forks 498 (observed 2026-08-28T04:07:09.812181+00:00)

## What it is
strace is a diagnostic, debugging, and instructional userspace utility for Linux that traces system calls, signal deliveries, and process state changes via ptrace. It provides a traditional command-line interface for monitoring and tampering with interactions between processes and the Linux kernel.

## Use cases
- trace system calls made by a program
- debug why a process is failing or hanging
- find out which files a program opens
- inspect signals delivered to a process
- learn how programs interact with the Linux kernel
- diagnose permission or missing-file errors

## When to choose
- you need to see what system calls a Linux process makes
- you are debugging crashes, hangs, or file access issues on Linux
- you want a lightweight, standard syscall tracer without extra dependencies

## When to avoid
- you need syscall tracing on non-Linux platforms (use dtruss/dtrace instead)
- you need application-level or source-level debugging rather than syscall-level
- you need low-overhead continuous production tracing (ptrace adds overhead)

## Facets
- artifact type: cli-tool
- maturity: stable
- function: developer-tools, monitoring, tracing
- domain: developer-tools, operating-systems
- platform: cli
- tags: syscall-tracing, ptrace, debugging, system-calls, process-monitoring, command-line, linux

## Member repositories
- strace/strace (main) score 94

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:09.812181+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T02:18:00.987402+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/strace/strace (fetched 2026-08-28T04:07:09.812181+00:00, sha 0241f215cae0)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.