Using strace one can trace the system calls being executed by a running process. To stop the strace press control-C

To display the system calls being executed
$ strace -p <pid>

or

To display a summary of system calls being executed
$ strace -cfo <logfile> -p <pid>

Example: In this example smon process was being traced
$ strace -p 1234
Process 1234 attached – interrupt to quit
getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, (ru….
getrusage(RUSAGE_SELF, (ru….
Pressed <control-C>

$ strace -cfo smon_strace.log -p 1234
Process 1234 attached – interrupt to quit
Process 1234 detached
Pressed <control-C> to detach.

$ cat smon_strace.log
% time seconds usecs/call calls errors syscall
—— ———– ———– ——— ——— —————-
nan 0.000000 0 22 getrusage
—— ———– ———– ——— ——— —————-
100.00 0.000000 22 total