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Asked: 2026-05-20T21:14:54+00:00

6331 execve(./a.out, [./a.out], [/* 22 vars */]) = 0 6331 brk(0) = 0x601000 What

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6331  execve("./a.out", ["./a.out"], [/* 22 vars */]) = 0
6331  brk(0)                            = 0x601000

What does 6331 mean here?

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    The 6331 in your example is the process id; it comes in handy when you strace(1) with the -f or -F flags a program that spawns other programs. For a quick example, try this:

    strace -o /tmp/out -fF /etc/init.d/cron status

    (There’s nothing magical about that initscript, I just figured it’d be a script that you have on your system.)

    The /tmp/out file will show you the output from several processes, and each will be prefixed with its pid:

    22631 read(10, "#!/bin/sh -e\n# upstart-job\n#\n# S"..., 8192) = 1826
22631 pipe([3, 4])                      = 0
22631 clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7fcb01efd9d0) = 22632
22631 close(4)                          = 0
22632 close(10 <unfinished ...>
22631 read(3,  <unfinished ...>
22632 <... close resumed> )             = 0
22632 close(3)                          = 0
22632 dup2(4, 1)                        = 1
22632 close(4)                          = 0
22632 stat("/home/sarnold/bin/basename", 0x7fffb751ce30) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)

    You can see the creation of the new process with the clone(2) call (which is how Linux has implemented fork(), in newer versions of the kernel).

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