Explain the purpose and main functions of the strace utility in Linux.

The strace utility in Linux is designed for tracing system calls and signals made by a process. It allows developers and administrators to see which system calls a program makes, with what parameters, and what results it returns.

Main functions of strace:

• Tracking system calls (open, read, write, execve, etc.)
• Diagnosing issues with permissions, files, network
• Analyzing program behavior and identifying errors
• Debugging interactions with the kernel and external resources

Example usage:

strace -p <pid>  # tracing a process with the specified PID
strace ls        # launching and tracing the ls command