Using Trace

trace "[options] command {command arguments}
Options:
/o:file Log all events to the output files.
/? Display this help message.
Summary:
Runs the build commands and figures out which files have dependencies..

Trace records every child process, every file accessed (created, deleted, written, read) for a process and every child process, and dumps it all into a nice little XML file.
Example Trace File:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Traces>
    <Process id="::0.::" par="" exe="cscript" pid="8284" >
        <Directory>C:\root\projects\work\gsToolkit</Directory>
        <Executable>C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cscript.exe</Executable>
        <Line>C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cscript.exe clean.js</Line>
        <Return>0</Return>
        <Files>
            <File read="true">C:\root\projects\work\gsToolkit\clean.js</File>
            <File read="true">C:\root\projects\work\gsToolkit\js\js.js</File>
            <File delete="true">C:\root\projects\work\gsToolkit\output\Win32\Release\bin\gsToolkit.dll</File>
            <File delete="true">C:\root\projects\work\gsToolkit\output\Win32\Release\bin\mkProject.exe</File>
        </Files>
        <Vars>
        </Vars>
        <Child id="::0.1.::" exe="cmd" >
            <Executable>C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe</Executable>
            <Line>C:\Windows\system32\cmd.exe /c type ext\iconv\php_iconv.def ext\pcre\php_pcre.def ext\zlib\php_zlib.def ext\libxml\php_libxml2.def &gt; Release\php5.dll.def</Line>
        </Child>
    </Process>
    <Process id="::0.1.::" parentId="::0.::" par="/nmake" exe="cmd" redirects="true" pid="5568" >
        <Directory>C:\UnifiedBuild\php5</Directory>
        <Executable>C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe</Executable>
        <Line>C:\Windows\SysWOW64\cmd.exe /c type ext\iconv\php_iconv.def ext\pcre\php_pcre.def ext\zlib\php_zlib.def ext\libxml\php_libxml2.def &gt; Release\php5.dll.def</Line>
        <Return>0</Return>
        <Files>
            <File write="true">C:\UnifiedBuild\php5\Release\php5.dll.def</File>
            <File read="true">C:\UnifiedBuild\php5\ext\iconv\php_iconv.def</File>
            <File read="true">C:\UnifiedBuild\php5\ext\pcre\php_pcre.def</File>
            <File read="true">C:\UnifiedBuild\php5\ext\zlib\php_zlib.def</File>
            <File read="true">C:\UnifiedBuild\php5\ext\libxml\php_libxml2.def</File>
        </Files>
        <Vars>
        </Vars>
    </Process>
</Traces>

Building Trace

In order to build Trace, you must first get Detours from http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/detours/, and install it. (If it's in the default location, the project file will find it.)