Install strace with Homebrew, apk, apt, dnf, Nix, pacman, zypper

Project links

• Homepage
• Repository

Commands and aliases

• strace
• strace-log-merge

Project history

The strace manual history says the original program was written by Paul Kranenburg for SunOS and inspired by Sun's trace utility. Branko Lankester ported it to Linux and added Linux kernel support, and Rick Sladkey merged the SunOS and Linux lines in 1993 before adding SVR4, Solaris, and Irix work.

Maintenance later moved through Wichert Akkerman in 1996, Roland McGrath in 2002, and Dmitry Levin from 2009. The manual records major platform work across Linux architectures, a migration to Git, and the eventual removal of non-Linux code after the 4.6 release.

Adoption history

strace is packaged across mainstream Unix-like package managers in the supplied source facts, including Homebrew, Debian, Fedora, Arch, Alpine, Nix, Ubuntu, and openSUSE.

Its adoption is tied less to a framework ecosystem and more to everyday operational debugging: when a binary cannot open a file, hangs on a socket, sees unexpected permissions, or makes surprising syscalls, strace is the small tool users install first.

How it is used

The man page describes tracing a new command, attaching to an existing process with -p, filtering syscall sets, tracing paths, dumping selected file descriptor I/O, collecting timing summaries, printing timestamps, decoding file descriptors, and injecting syscall faults.

Package users commonly install it as a rescue and diagnosis tool on Linux hosts, containers, CI images, and development machines.

Why package nerds care

strace is package-nerd significant because it explains package failures at the syscall layer: missing shared libraries, wrong config paths, permission problems, sandbox behavior, and network or filesystem assumptions become visible without rebuilding the program.

It is also a fixture of minimal debugging toolbelts. Even users who do not develop strace depend on distributions keeping its syscall tables current with the Linux kernel.

Timeline

• 1991: Paul Kranenburg's SunOS strace lineage begins, according to the man page history.
• 1992: Branko Lankester ports strace to Linux.
• 1993: Rick Sladkey takes on the project and merges the SunOS and Linux versions.
• 1996: Wichert Akkerman becomes maintainer.
• 2002: Roland McGrath takes over maintenance.
• 2009: Dmitry Levin becomes active maintainer.
• 2012: strace 4.7 removes non-Linux code after the 4.6 release.

Related projects

• The man page positions strace among Unix tracing tools such as Sun trace and SVR4 truss, and its Linux implementation depends on the kernel ptrace interface.
• Adjacent Linux diagnostic tools include ltrace, perf, ftrace tooling, and system-call-aware debuggers, but strace remains the small user-facing syscall tracer most package users reach for.

Sources

• https://github.com/strace/strace/blob/master/COPYING
• https://github.com/strace/strace/blob/master/NEWS
• https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/strace.1.html
• source_facts.package-manager