[HN Gopher] Intentrace: Strace for Everyone
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       Intentrace: Strace for Everyone
        
       Author : MrBuddyCasino
       Score  : 59 points
       Date   : 2024-11-08 05:09 UTC (17 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | maxmcd wrote:
       | Huh, I did not realize I was settling for something so
       | incomprehensible compared to this. Really nice to see. Maybe
       | there are other nice tools like this?
        
         | djbusby wrote:
         | A better traceroute is mtr - was mentioned a few days ago on
         | here.
        
           | nunez wrote:
           | tcptraceroute can also be more useful sometimes, as it
           | doesn't rely on ICMP for the probes. But mtr all the way.
        
             | teddyh wrote:
             | mtr --tcp
             | 
             | "Use TCP SYN packets instead of ICMP ECHO. PACKETSIZE is
             | ignored, since SYN packets can not contain data."
        
         | ranger_danger wrote:
         | eBPF has entered the chat: https://github.com/iovisor/bcc
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wb_vD3XZYOA
        
       | immibis wrote:
       | So it just prints "get the target path of link foo" instead of
       | "readlink(foo)" and so on?
       | 
       | When I read the description I hoped it would match broad strokes
       | like "load library foo.so" but the screenshot shows that it just
       | rewords each syscall name into English.
        
         | Hello71 wrote:
         | Yeah, it seems like it could be implemented as a postprocessor
         | of strace --decode-fds. Knowing what each syscall does isn't
         | really the hard part of strace, it's knowing which ones are
         | important, which ones are part of libc itself and can usually
         | be ignored (e.g. collecting /etc/localtime) and which are
         | explicitly requested by the application, piecing together
         | multi-threaded/multi-process logic, etc. strace has a lot of
         | functions to help with that which this doesn't support, like
         | syscall filtering, struct decoding, and stack tracing.
        
           | donaldihunter wrote:
           | Agreed, I'm a bit underwhelmed by intentrace when compared to
           | the richness of strace. For sure, strace could maybe benefit
           | from some UX like colorised output and a TUI that lets you
           | filter syscalls while it is running.
        
             | donaldihunter wrote:
             | Mmmm: https://github.com/xfgusta/strace-with-colors
        
           | peter_d_sherman wrote:
           | >Knowing what each syscall does isn't really the hard part of
           | strace, it's knowing which ones are important, which ones are
           | part of libc itself and can usually be ignored
           | 
           | An excellent point!
           | 
           | More broadly, since many/most Linux/Unix/etc, programs use
           | one or more libraries (which in turn could use one or more
           | other libraries, etc., etc.), then one very important key for
           | designers of any type of strace program, present or future,
           | is:
           | 
           |  _Can the traced system calls be set granularly, such that
           | the individual libraries making syscalls (as opposed to the
           | main program!) be identified individually, and possibly
           | filtered in /out from the results accordingly?_
           | 
           | So, an excellent point!
        
       | cassianoleal wrote:
       | > Strace for Everyone
       | 
       | For a moment there I was excited to see strace on the Mac. Not
       | for everyone, it seems.
        
         | nunez wrote:
         | To be fair, we do have fs_usage and, if you disable SIP,
         | dtrace. fs_usage is nowhere near as awesome and comprehensive
         | as strace, but it's something.
        
           | donaldihunter wrote:
           | Yes, I get by with dtruss which is inferior to strace but
           | usually good enough. It's just a 1000 line dtrace program so
           | I guess it could be improved.
        
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       (page generated 2024-11-08 23:02 UTC)