quandong

A program which captures its environment and command-line arguments to a JSON file, then executes the next program in the path with the same name.

Usage

Copy the quandong executable to a directory using the name of a program whose invocation you wish to capture (the target). Then add the directory to the front of the PATH. Now, whenever quandong is executed, its input is captured and the target is loaded with exec() in the same process. Here's usage to log sudo:

$ mkdir para
$ cp ~/Downloads/quandong para/sudo
$ chmod +x para/sudo
$ export PATH=$PWD/para:$PATH
$ which sudo
/home/lucy/para/sudo

When used, there should be no difference from the target.

$ sudo id
uid=0(root) gid=0(root) groups=0(root)
$ less quandong-sudo-606199410.json

The Captured Information

Every time the target is run, a temp file is created in the current directory with name format quandong-<taget name>-<unique number>.json. For example, quandong-sudo-606199410.json

Within the file these attributes are available, example:

{
  "args": [         # The command-line arguments
    "sudo",
    "id"
  ],
  "environ": {      # The environment of the process
    "DESKTOP_SESSION": "xfce",
    etc . . .
  },
  "quandong": {     # Information about this program 
    "executable": "/home/lucy/para/sudo",
    "version": "0.0.1-1-g6bd3927"
  },
  "target": "/usr/bin/sudo"     # The path to the target
}

The Name

The quandong is a parasitic tree which draws sustenance from the roots of those around it, like a mistletoe, but it's a standalone tree. It has edible fruit. From Wikipedia:

Santalum acuminatum, the desert quandong, is a hemiparasitic plant in the sandalwood family, Santalaceae, (Native to Australia) which is widely dispersed throughout the central deserts and southern areas of Australia.