How to track the functions used by a python command?

Question

I want to trace the functions used by a particular command, specifically for OpenStack. Now, I have a command, let's say 'nova image-list', which shows the images available in the repository. I want to know what functions is this command calling?

I tried with strace, but the maximum I could get was the files that the command opens (and it's lot of them!). Again I tried with trace module of python, but when I try

tracer.run('nova image-list')

it gives a syntax error. Now, is there tool/mechanism that can help me to get the flow of this command?

Answer 1

most of the python clients for openstack have a not so well documented --debug flag, this will show the api queries occurring in incredibly unsafe verbosity.