How find out which process is using a file in Linux?
You can use the fuser
command, like:
fuser file_name
You will receive a list of processes using the file.
You can use different flags with it, in order to receive a more detailed output.
You can find more info in the fuser's Wikipedia article, or in the man
pages.
@jim's answer is correct -- fuser
is what you want.
Additionally (or alternately), you can use lsof
to get more information including the username, in case you need permission (without having to run an additional command) to kill the process. (THough of course, if killing the process is what you want, fuser
can do that with its -k
option. You can have fuser
use other signals with the -s
option -- check the man page for details.)
For example, with a tail -F /etc/passwd
running in one window:
ghoti@pc:~$ lsof | grep passwd
tail 12470 ghoti 3r REG 251,0 2037 51515911 /etc/passwd
Note that you can also use lsof
to find out what processes are using particular sockets. An excellent tool to have in your arsenal.