Source From HereIntroductionlsof stands for List Open Files. It is easy to remember lsof command if you think of it as “ls + of”, where ls stands for list, and of stands for open files.
It is a command line utility which is used to list the information about the files that are opened by various processes. In unix, everything is a file, (
pipes, sockets, directories, devices, etc.). So by using
lsof, you can get the information about any opened files.
Simply typing lsof will provide a list of all open files belonging to all active processes.
# lsof | less
By default One file per line is displayed. Most of the columns are self explanatory. We will explain the details about couple of cryptic columns (
FD and TYPE).
FD – Represents the file descriptor. Some of the values of FDs are:
* cwd – Current Working Directory
* txt – Text file
* mem – Memory mapped file
* mmap – Memory mapped device
* NUMBER – Represent the actual file descriptor. The character after the number i.e ‘1u’, represents the mode in which the file is opened. r for read, w for write, u for read and write.
TYPE – Specifies the type of the file. Some of the values of TYPEs are,
* REG – Regular File
* DIR – Directory
* FIFO – First In First Out
* CHR – Character special file
For a complete list of
FD &
TYPE, refer
man lsof.
Usage ExamplesList processes which opened a specific fileYou can list only the processes which opened a specific file, by providing the filename as arguments.
# lsof /var/log/syslog
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
rsyslogd 488 syslog 1w REG 8,1 1151 268940 /var/log/syslog
List opened files under a directoryYou can list the processes which opened files under a specified directory using ‘
+D’ option.
+D will recurse the sub directories also. If you don’t want lsof to recurse, then use ‘
+d’ option.
# lsof +D /var/log/
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
rsyslogd 488 syslog 1w REG 8,1 1151 268940 /var/log/syslog
rsyslogd 488 syslog 2w REG 8,1 2405 269616 /var/log/auth.log
console-k 144 root 9w REG 8,1 10871 269369 /var/log/ConsoleKit/history
List opened files based on process names starting withYou can list the files opened by process names starting with a string, using ‘
-c’ option. -c followed by the process name will list the files opened by the process starting with that processes name. Multiple
-c is accepted.
# lsof -c ssh -c init
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
init 1 root txt REG 8,1 124704 917562 /sbin/init
init 1 root mem REG 8,1 1434180 1442625 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.13.so
init 1 root mem REG 8,1 30684 1442694 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/librt-2.13.so
...
ssh-agent 1528 lakshmanan 1u CHR 1,3 0t0 4369 /dev/null
ssh-agent 1528 lakshmanan 2u CHR 1,3 0t0 4369 /dev/null
ssh-agent 1528 lakshmanan 3u unix 0xdf70e240 0t0 10464 /tmp/ssh-sUymKXxw1495/agent.1495
List processes using a mount pointSometime when we try to umount a directory, the system will say “
Device or Resource Busy” error. So we need to find out what are all the processes using the mount point and kill those processes to umount the directory. By using
lsofwe can find those processes.
# lsof /home
Or
# lsof +D /home/
List files opened by a specific userIn order to find the list of files opened by a specific users, use ‘
-u’ option.
# lsof -u lakshmanan
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
update-no 1892 lakshmanan 20r FIFO 0,8 0t0 14536 pipe
update-no 1892 lakshmanan 21w FIFO 0,8 0t0 14536 pipe
bash 1995 lakshmanan cwd DIR 8,1 4096 393218 /home/lakshmanan
Sometimes you may want to list files opened by all users, expect some 1 or 2. In that case you can use the ‘
^’ to exclude only the particular user as follows:
# lsof -u ^lakshmanan
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
rtkit-dae 1380 rtkit 7u 0000 0,9 0 4360 anon_inode
udisks-da 1584 root cwd DIR 8,1 4096 2 /
The above command listed all the files opened by all users, expect user ‘lakshmanan’.
List all open files by a specific processYou can list all the files opened by a specific process using ‘
-p’ option. It will be helpful sometimes to get more information about a specific process.
# lsof -p 1753
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
bash 1753 lakshmanan cwd DIR 8,1 4096 393571 /home/lakshmanan/test.txt
bash 1753 lakshmanan rtd DIR 8,1 4096 2 /
bash 1753 lakshmanan 255u CHR 136,0 0t0 3 /dev/pts/0
...
Kill all process that belongs to a particular userWhen you want to kill all the processes which has files opened by a specific user, you can use ‘
-t’ option to list output only the process id of the process, and pass it to kill as follows:
# kill -9 `lsof -t -u lakshmanan`
The above command will kill all process belonging to user ‘
lakshmanan’, which has files opened. Similarly you can also use ‘
-t’ in many ways. For example, to list process id of a process which opened
/var/log/syslog can be done by:
# lsof -t /var/log/syslog
489
Talking about kill, did you know that there are
4 Ways to Kill a Process?
Combine more list options using OR/ANDBy default when you use more than one list option in lsof, they will be ORed. For example:
# lsof -u lakshmanan -c init
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
init 1 root cwd DIR 8,1 4096 2 /
init 1 root txt REG 8,1 124704 917562 /sbin/init
bash 1995 lakshmanan 2u CHR 136,2 0t0 5 /dev/pts/2
bash 1995 lakshmanan 255u CHR 136,2 0t0 5 /dev/pts/2
...
The above command uses two list options, ‘
-u’ and ‘
-c’. So the command will list process belongs to user ‘lakshmanan’ as well as process name starts with ‘init’. But when you want to list a process belongs to user ‘lakshmanan’ and the process name starts with ‘init’, you can use ‘-a’ option.
# lsof -u lakshmanan -c init -a
The above command will not output anything, because there is no such process named ‘init’ belonging to user ‘lakshmanan’.
Execute lsof in repeat modelsof also support Repeat mode. It will first list files based on the given parameters, and delay for specified seconds and again list files based on the given parameters. It can be interrupted by a signal. Repeat mode can be enabled by using ‘
-r’ or ‘
+r’.
If ‘+r’ is used then, the repeat mode will end when no open files are found. ‘
-r’ will continue to list,delay,list until a interrupt is given irrespective of files are opened or not.
# lsof -u lakshmanan -c init -a -r5
=======
...
=======
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF NODE NAME
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan cwd DIR 8,1 4096 393218 /home/lakshmanan
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan rtd DIR 8,1 4096 2 /
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan txt REG 8,1 83848 524315 /bin/dash
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan mem REG 8,1 1434180 1442625 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/libc-2.13.so
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan mem REG 8,1 117960 1442612 /lib/i386-linux-gnu/ld-2.13.so
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan 0u CHR 136,4 0t0 7 /dev/pts/4
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan 1u CHR 136,4 0t0 7 /dev/pts/4
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan 2u CHR 136,4 0t0 7 /dev/pts/4
inita.sh 2971 lakshmanan 10r REG 8,1 20 393578 /home/lakshmanan/inita.sh
=======
In the above output, for the first 5 seconds, there is no output. After that a script named “inita.sh” is started, and it list the output every 5 seconds.
Network connections are also files. So we can find information about them by using lsof.
List processes which are listening on a particular portYou can list the processes which are listening on a particular port by using ‘
-i’ with ‘
:’ as follows:
# lsof -i :25
COMMAND PID USER FD TYPE DEVICE SIZE NODE NAME
exim4 2541 Debian-exim 3u IPv4 8677 TCP localhost:smtp (LISTEN)
List all TCP or UDP connectionsYou can list all the TCP or UDP connections by specifying the protocol using ‘
-i’.
# lsof -i tcp; lsof -i udp;
List all Network File System ( NFS ) filesYou can list all the NFS files by using ‘
-N’ option. The following lsof command will list all NFS files used by user ‘lakshmanan’.
# lsof -N -u lakshmanan -a
