Answer

The strace command is useful for pinpointing some types of application performance bottlenecks. It takes another command as its argument, runs that command, and displays each system call made by the program.

The strace command is not part of the default installation on Netezza systems. To install the strace rpm package, do the following:  

The example below is for a RedHat Version 5.3 system.

1. Install the strace rpm from /opt/nz-hwsupport/pts/rpms or receive latest file from support.
2. Copy the rpm file to the /tmp directory on the system.
3. As the root user, run the following command (version may be different):

rpm -ivh strace-4.5.18-2.el5.x86_64.rpm

[root@NZ-80019-H1 tmp]# rpm -ivh strace-4.5.18-2.el5.x86_64.rpm
warning: strace-4.5.18-2.el5.x86_64.rpm: Header V3 DSA signature: NOKEY, key ID 37017186
Preparing...                ########################################### [100%]
   1:strace                 ########################################### [100%]

[root@NZ-80019-H1 tmp]# strace /nz/kit/bin/nzsql -V 2>&1 | less
mprotect(0x9c7000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0xb7b000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x864000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x82a000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
mprotect(0x6d7000, 4096, PROT_READ)     = 0
munmap(0xf7f49000, 49931)               = 0
access("/etc/selinux/", F_OK)           = 0
brk(0)                                  = 0xa74c000
brk(0xa76d000)                          = 0xa76d000
open("/etc/selinux/config", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=447, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0xffd5563c) = 0xfffffffff7f55000
read(3, "# This file controls the state o"..., 4096) = 447
read(3, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0xf7f55000, 4096)                = 0
open("/proc/mounts", O_RDONLY|O_LARGEFILE) = 3
fstat64(3, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0444, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0xffd55614) = 0xfffffffff7f55000
read(3, "rootfs / rootfs rw 0 0\n/dev/root"..., 4096) = 2072
read(3, "", 4096)                       = 0
close(3)                                = 0
munmap(0xf7f55000, 4096)                = 0
access("/tmp/spin_nzsql", F_OK)         = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
fstat64(1, {st_mode=S_IFIFO|0600, st_size=0, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 4096, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_ANONYMOUS, -1, 0xffd54cc0) = 0xfffffffff7f55000
write(1, "nzsql (Netezza SQL) Release 5.0."..., 217nzsql (Netezza SQL) Release 5.0.8 (P-3) [Build 12434]
contains history support
Portions Copyright (c) 1996-2001, PostgreSQL Global Development Group
Portions Copyright (c) 1996 Regents of the University of California
) = 217
exit_group(0)                           = ?
[ Process PID=12916 runs in 32 bit mode. ]