NAME

opensnoop - snoop file opens as they occur. Uses DTrace.

SYNOPSIS

opensnoop [-a|-A|-ceghsvxZ] [-f pathname] [-n name] [-p PID]

DESCRIPTION

opensnoop tracks file opens. As a process issues a file open, details such as UID, PID and pathname are printed out.

The returned file descriptor is printed, a value of -1 indicates an error. This can be useful for troubleshooting to determine if appliacions are attempting to open files that do not exist.

Since this uses DTrace, only the root user or users with the dtrace_kernel privilege can run this command.

OS

Solaris

STABILITY

stable - needs the syscall provider.

OPTIONS

-a: print all data
-A: dump all data, space delimited
-c: print current working directory of process
-e: print errno value
-g: print full command arguments
-s: print start time, us
-v: print start time, string
-x: only print failed opens
-Z: print zonename
-f pathname: file pathname to snoop
-n name: process name to snoop
-p PID: process ID to snoop

EXAMPLES

Default output, print file opens by process as they occur,: # opensnoop
Print human readable timestamps,: # opensnoop -v
See error codes,: # opensnoop -e
Snoop this file only,: # opensnoop -f /etc/passwd

FIELDS

ZONE: Zone name
UID: User ID
PID: Process ID
PPID: Parent Process ID
FD: File Descriptor (-1 is error)
ERR: errno value (see /usr/include/sys/errno.h)
CWD: current working directory of process
PATH: pathname for file open
COMM: command name for the process
ARGS: argument listing for the process
TIME: timestamp for the open event, us
STRTIME: timestamp for the open event, string

DOCUMENTATION

See the DTraceToolkit for further documentation under the Docs directory. The DTraceToolkit docs may include full worked examples with verbose descriptions explaining the output.

EXIT

opensnoop will run forever until Ctrl-C is hit.

BUGS

occasionally the pathname for the file open cannot be read and the following error will be seen,

dtrace: error on enabled probe ID 6 (...): invalid address

this is normal behaviour.

AUTHOR

Brendan Gregg [Sydney, Australia]