Re: ptrace vs /proc

[Pradeep Padala]

> Linux already posesses modular support for a /proc filesystem, every distribution, and I believe the stock kernel config includes support for this under the filesystems section by default.

I should have been clearer. I would like to know about the features ptrace 
supports like "system call tracing", "setting breakpoints" etc. 
Traditionally they were done through ptrace interface. In solaris and I 
guess in other operating systems like IRIX, they are moved to /proc 
interface. Applications wanting to trace programs like gdb, would use 
ioctl on the /proc/<pid> and trace the programs. 

As far as I could investigate, I didn't find any such interface in linux. 
Programs like strace do the tracing through ptrace only.

Please let me know if you know more about this.

--pradeep