ptrace() help request

[James L. Goldsmith]

Greetings:

I am working on a project for the US Army and have a need
to monitor the openings, closing and creations of files by child
processes.  My initial thought was to use ptrace() to catch
interrupts.  Is there a better way?

Assuming there is not a better way, can you point me toward
some sample code or documentation better than the man
pages - they are remarkably obtuse.  My first cut hangs.

Portability is a concern since this beast is to be implemented
using Sun SS1's (SunOS 4.1) and SCO UNIX.

Many thanks in advance.

...jim