fuser(ADM)                      19 June 1992                      fuser(ADM)


 Name

    fuser - identify processes using a file or filesystem

 Syntax

    /etc/fuser [ -ku ] files | filesystems [ - ] [ [ -ku ] files | file-
    systems ]

 Description

    The fuser command outputs the process IDs of the processes that are using
    the files or local filesystems specified as arguments.  (fuser does not
    work on remote (NFS) filesystems.)  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.  the parent of its current directory (only when the file is being used
        by the system), the code is p; or

    3.  its root directory, the code is r.

    For block-special devices with mounted filesystems, all processes using
    any file on that device are listed. For all other types of files (text
    files, executables, directories, devices, etc.), only the processes using
    that file are reported.

    The following options may be used with fuser:

    -u  the user login name, in parentheses, also follows the process ID.

    -k  the SIGKILL signal is sent to each process.  Since this option spawns
        kills for each process, the kill messages may not show up immediately
        (see kill(S)).

    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; then, the new set of options applies to
    the next group of files.

    The process IDs 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.

    You cannot list processes using a particular file from a remote file-
    system mounted on your machine.  You can only use the filesystem name as
    an argument.

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

 Files

    /unix           for system name list
    /dev/kmem       for system image
    /dev/mem        also for system image

 See also

    kill(S), mount(ADM), ps(C), signal(S)