Strace Command: Increase CPU load

The strace command is primarily used for tracing system calls and signals made by a process. While it can generate some CPU load because of the overhead it introduces, it’s not typically used to intentionally create a “huge” CPU load. If your goal is to stress the CPU for testing or benchmarking purposes, you may want to consider other tools like stress, yes, or stress-ng.

However, if you still want to use strace to generate some CPU load, you can do so by tracing a process that performs a lot of system calls. For example, you can run a simple infinite loop that makes system calls continuously and then use strace to trace that process. Here’s an example:

# Create a simple script called infinite_loop.sh that contains a loop making frequent system calls:

#!/bin/bash
while true; do
    echo "Hello, world!" >/dev/null
done

# Make the script executable:

chmod +x infinite_loop.sh

# Run the script in the background:

./infinite_loop.sh &

# Find the process ID (PID) of the running script:
ps aux | grep infinite_loop.sh

# Use strace to trace the process by specifying its PID:
strace -p <PID>Code language: PHP (php)

Rajesh Kumar

I’m Rajesh Kumar, a DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, Cloud, and Platform Engineering expert passionate about sharing practical knowledge, real-world experiences, and industry best practices. I have worked at Cotocus and regularly write about technology, travel, investing, health, product reviews, and digital marketing through my various platforms.

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