[G4] Finding a process that's keeping a file open

[Joseph B. Gurman]

     Vicki of Niue wrote:

>There is a way to find out via the terminal which process is hogging
>the image, and then kill that process, but right now I don't remember
>the procedure. Anyone else?

lsof -Fp | grep <filename>

where <filename> is the name of the annoyingly open file, will return 
the process ID (pid) of the offending process; the output, however, 
will be preceded by a "p," so to kill the process in one shell line, 
you'd have to use awk or something similar. I'm lazy and un-awk-aware 
enough to do it in two steps, the second being

kill -9 <pid>

where <pid> is the number following the "p" in the output from lsof.

     CAUTION: I don't know what you'll be killing when you do that, so 
proceed at your own risk. No warranty, written or implied, &c. NASA 
and its interplanetary probes cannot be held responsible for loss, 
breakage, or polishing of rocks. And so on.

     HTH,

						Joe Gurman

-- 
"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by."
                                                             - Douglas 
Adams, 1952 - 2001

Joseph B. Gurman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Solar Physics
Branch, Greenbelt MD 20771 USA