call stack without words

ltrace

Usage: ltrace [option ...] [command [arg ...]]

ltrace is a tool that simply runs the specified command until it exits. It intercepts and records the dynamic library calls which are called by the executed process.

dan@lemon:~/playground$ ltrace -n 8 -C date
__libc_start_main(0x8049780, 1, 0xbfb1e874, 0x8052c50, 0x8052c40 
       setlocale(6, "")                                                                         = "en_US.UTF-8"
       bindtextdomain("coreutils", "/usr/share/locale")                                         = "/usr/share/locale"
       textdomain("coreutils")                                                                  = "coreutils"
       __cxa_atexit(0x804cd70, 0, 0, 0xb7ee4ff4, 0xbfb1e7d8)                                    = 0
       getopt_long(1, 0xbfb1e874, "d:f:I::r:Rs:u", 0x8053ea0, NULL)                             = -1
       nl_langinfo(131180, 0xbfb1e874, 0x8053e85, 0x8053ea0, 0)                                 = 0xb7ef3915
       clock_gettime(0, 0xbfb1e7b8, 0xb7dae8f5, 0xb7ee4ff4, 0)                                  = 0
       localtime(0xbfb1e6c8)                                                                    = 0xb7ee8380
       strftime(" Wed", 1024, " %a", 0xb7ee8380)                                                = 4
       fwrite("Wed", 3, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                          = 1
       fputc(' ', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 32
       strftime(" Mar", 1024, " %b", 0xb7ee8380)                                                = 4
       fwrite("Mar", 3, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                          = 1
       fputc(' ', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 32
       fwrite("11", 2, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                           = 1
       fputc(' ', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 32
       fputc('0', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 48
       fwrite("9", 1, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                            = 1
       fputc(':', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 58
       fwrite("38", 2, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                           = 1
       fputc(':', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 58
       fwrite("33", 2, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                           = 1
       fputc(' ', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 32
       strlen("EET")                                                                            = 3
       fwrite("EET", 3, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                          = 1
       fputc(' ', 0xb7ee54c0)                                                                   = 32
       fwrite("2009", 4, 1, 0xb7ee54c0)                                                         = 1
       __overflow(0xb7ee54c0, 10, 0x1e08f70c, 0, 0x1e08f70cWed Mar 11 09:38:33 EET 2009
)                                    = 10
       exit(0 
               __fpending(0xb7ee54c0, 0xb7f20ff4, 0x8048704, 0xb7ee4ff4, 0)                     = 0
               fclose(0xb7ee54c0)                                                               = 0
               __fpending(0xb7ee5560, 0xb7f20ff4, 0x8048704, 0xb7ee4ff4, 0)                     = 0
               fclose(0xb7ee5560)                                                               = 0
+++ exited (status 0) +++

ltrace accepts a lot of options. You can trace also for system calls, count time , follow forks etc. A short list with options can be found below:

  -a, --align=COLUMN  align return values in a secific column.
  -c                  count time and calls, and report a summary on exit.
  -C, --demangle      decode low-level symbol names into user-level names.
  -d, --debug         print debugging info.
  -e expr             modify which events to trace.
  -f                  follow forks.
  -h, --help          display this help and exit.
  -i                  print instruction pointer at time of library call.
  -l, --library=FILE  print library calls from this library only.
  -L                  do NOT display library calls.
  -n, --indent=NR     indent output by NR spaces for each call level nesting.
  -o, --output=FILE   write the trace output to that file.
  -p PID              attach to the process with the process ID pid.
  -r                  print relative timestamps.
  -s STRLEN           specify the maximum string size to print.
  -S                  display system calls.
  -t, -tt, -ttt       print absolute timestamps.
  -T                  show the time spent inside each call.
  -u USERNAME         run command with the userid, groupid of username.
  -V, --version       output version information and exit.
  -x NAME             treat the global NAME like a library subroutine.

dmidecode

dmidecode is a tool for dumping a computer's DMI table contents in a human readable format. This table contains information regarding system's hardware components as described in BIOS.

More information you can find here or in dmidecode(8) manpage.