Why can't gdb attach to server application summoned with inetd?

Question

I have a server application that can be summoned for the client using inetd. However, if I try to attach to the server process that was launched with inetd, I get the following response: ptrace: Operation not permitted.

gdb --annotate=3 /my/app/here <processId>

Current directory is /usr/local/bin/
GNU gdb 6.8
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This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"...
Reading symbols from /usr/local/bin/flumed...done.
Using host libthread_db library "/lib/tls/libthread_db.so.1".
Attaching to program: /my/app/here, process <processId>
ptrace: Operation not permitted.
/usr/local/bin/<processId>: No such file or directory.
(gdb)

Answer 1

Apparently, things get funky with inetd where the userid is not root. You end up with a process with weird permissions. For example, you are unable to read /proc/self/exe even though the permissions are 777. I suspect this issue is more of the same. Even though I'm the userid of the process, I don't have permissions. Using root for gdb is a work around.