how to use fuser command with its examples

The fuser command is used to identify which processes are currently have open files, directories, or sockets. is useful for troubleshooting scenarios when you need to find which process having a particular resource, such as a file or network socket.

• About fuser : Identify processes using files or sockets
• It comes from “psmisc-x.x” package.
• Configuration Files:
                  /proc     location of the proc file system
• Path: /sbin/fuser

Examples:

1. To get the process using root file system

$ fuser -c /

2. To show all files specified on the command line

$ fuser -a /

3. To kill the processes accessing the files

$ fuser -k /tmp

4. To ask the user before kill the process

$ fuser -ki /tmp

5. To list all the known signal

$ fuser -l

6. To list all processes of the mount point in which the given file is residing

$ fuser -m /tmp/file.txt

7. For silent operation

$ fuser -s /tmp

8. To specify the signal instead of SIGKILL

$ fuser -signal 15 /tmp

9. To get the user name of the process owner

$ fuser -u /tmp

10. To set the verbose mode

$ fuser -v

11. To display the version information

$ fuser -V

12. To search for only IPv4 sockets

$ fuser -4 /tmp

13. To search for only IPv6 sockets

$ fuser -6 /tmp

14. To reset the all the signal options

$ fuser –

Related Commands: kill, killall, lsof, ps, kill 

fuser command not found

If you get a message that fuser command is not found then it means your system is not haaving the “psmisc” package installed on it. Follow below steps to install the package as per your respective OS version.