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Name

fuser - identify processes using a file or file structure

Synopsis

/usr/sbin/fuser [ - [ c | f ] ku ] files [ [- [ c | f ] ku ] files ] ...

Availability

SUNWcsu

Description

fuser displays the process ID s of the processes that are using the files specified as arguments. Each process ID is followed by a letter code, interpreted as follows: if the process is using the file as 1) its current directory, the code is c; 2) its root directory, the code is r; 3) an open file, the code is o; or 4) its text file, the code is t. For block special devices with mounted file systems, all processes using any file on that device are listed. For all types of files (text files, executables, directories, devices, and so on), only the processes using that file are reported.

If more than one group of files are specified, the options may be respecified for each additional group of files. A lone dash cancels the options currently in force.

The process ID s are printed as a single line on the standard output, separated by spaces and terminated with a single new line. All other output is written on standard error.

Any user with permission to read /dev/kmem and /dev/mem can use fuser. Only the super-user can terminate another user’s process.

Options

-c
Report on files that are mount points for file systems, and any files within that mounted file system.
-f
Print a report for the named file, not for files within a mounted file system.
-k
Send the SIGKILL signal to each process. Since this option spawns kills for each process, the kill messages may not show up immediately (see kill(2) ).
-u
Display the user login name in parentheses following the process ID .

See Also

ps(1) , mount(1M) , kill(2) , signal(3C)

Notes

Because fuser works with a snapshot of the system image, it may miss processes that begin using a file while fuser is running. Also, processes reported as using a file may have stopped using it while fuser was running. These factors should discourage the use of the -k option.


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