Basic File Interactions 

file [filename]             # Identify file type  
./[filename]                # Execute the file  
strings [filename]          # Extract printable strings

Tracing Tools 

ltrace [filename]           # Trace library calls  
strace [filename]           # Trace system calls  
ptrace [filename]           # Low-level process tracing (used by debuggers)

Feeding Input via printf 

printf "[raw_byte_values]" | ./[filename]  
printf "[raw_byte_values]" | ltrace ./[filename]