How can one determine how a program interacts with the file system and disk in the Linux operating system?

In Linux, several tools can be used to analyze the program's interaction with the file system and disk:

• strace — tracks system calls, including file operations (open, read, write, close).

  strace -e trace=file ./your_program
  

  This will show all file operations.

• lsof — shows open files and the processes using them.

  lsof -p <PID>
  

• iotop — monitors disk usage in real-time by processes.

• blktrace and perf — for more in-depth analysis of disk operations.

Thus, for a quick understanding of the program's file operations, strace is usually sufficient.