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fuser(8) System Manager's Manual fuser(8) NAME fuser - Lists process IDs of processes that are using one or more files or file structures SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/fuser [-cfku] [-h] [-vH] file ... [- [-cfku] [-h] [-vH] file ...] ... FLAGS Identifies file as a mount point. In this case, fuser reports on any files that are open in the mounted file system. Requests a report only for the specified files. If a specified file is a mount point, fuser reports only on that file, not on any files below it. Suppresses col- umn headings in fuser output when used with the -v flag. Directs fuser to display information about its command-line options. Directs fuser to send a SIGKILL signal to each process. Because this flag spawns a kill operation for each process, the kill messages may not show up im- mediately. Directs fuser to show the user login name, in parentheses, associated with each process ID. Directs fuser to display results in verbose form. PARAMETERS Directs fuser to ignore previous flag settings for the next set of file parameters. The - operand allows you to apply different flags to dif- ferent sets of files in the same command line. Specifies the pathname of the file or the mount point of the file system on which fuser re- ports. DESCRIPTION The fuser utility writes to standard output the process IDs of processes that are running on the local system and have one or more files or file structures in use. The utility writes to standard error additional information about these resources that indicates how each resource is being used. If file identifies a block special device, fuser lists all processes using any file on that device. This utility does not display information about files for which you do not have the appropriate privileges. For information on many files, root privilege may be required. Furthermore, you must have appropriate privileges to use the -k flag. The utility uses the following format to write the process ID for each process using each file: "%d", process_id The fuser utility writes diagnostic messages to standard error. In addition, the utility writes the following information to standard error: The pathname of each file, immediately followed by a colon. For each process ID written to standard output, one of the following char- acters: If the process is using the file as its current directory. If the process is using a memory-mapped file. If the process is using the file as the parent of its current directory. If the process is using the file as its root directory. If the process has the file open. If the process is using the file as its controlling tty. If the process is using the text file as an executable. If you specify the -u flag, characters indicating the use of the file are followed immediately by the user name, in parentheses, that corresponds to the process's real user ID. If the user name cannot be resolved from the process's real user ID, the process's real user ID is written instead of the user name. When standard output and standard error are directed to the same file, the utility intersperses output so that the file appears at the start of each line, followed by the process ID and the characters indicating file use. Then, if the -u option is specified, the utility writes the user name or user ID for each process that is using that file. The utility writes a newline character at the end of output for each file. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect this utility: Provides a de- fault value for the locale variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corresponding value from the POSIX (C) locale is used. If any of the locale variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been set. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other locale variables. Specifies the locale used to interpret sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, determines whether arguments contain single-byte or multibyte characters). Specifies the locale that affects the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogs for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. NOTES The fuser utility may not report on processes that begin using a file while the utility is running. Furthermore, processes that fuser reports are using a file may have stopped using it while the utility was run- ning. EXAMPLES The following command lists the process IDs of processes using the /etc/hosts file: fuser /etc/hosts The following command writes to standard output the process IDs of processes that are using the current direc- tory. The command writes to standard error an indication of how those processes are using the directory and the user names asso- ciated with those processes. fuser -fu . EXIT VALUES The fuser utility returns the following exit values: Successful comple- tion. An error occurred. RELATED INFORMATION Functions: fuser(2), kill(2) delim off fuser(8)