1. Ltrace is a debugging program which runs a specified command until the command exits. While the command is executing, ltrace intercepts and records both the dynamic library calls called by the executed process and the signals received by the executed process. Ltrace can also intercept and print system calls executed by the process. You should install ltrace if you need a sysadmin tool for tracking the execution of processes. From Mandrake 9.0 RPM

2. Tracks runtime library calls in dynamically linked programs ltrace is a debugging program which runs a specified command until it exits. While the command is executing, ltrace intercepts and records the dynamic library calls which are called by the executed process and the signals received by that process. It can also intercept and print the system calls executed by the program. The program to be traced need not be recompiled for this, so you can use it on binaries for which you don't have the source handy. You should install ltrace if you need a sysadmin tool for tracking the execution of processes. From Debian 3.0r0 APT