Use lsof to check which process open the specify file

Problem

Some times when we want to eject the usb disks, it will report that some process are using the disk, it can’t be eject, or want to delete a file, it will be failed to delete because some other processes are using it.

Solution

The solution to solve the problem is find which process is using the file or disk, we can use lsof command to implement it.

Example

I have a file test.docx and open it with word, than use the following command to check whether it was opened by other application.$ lsof test.docx
COMMAND     PID    USER   FD   TYPE DEVICE SIZE/OFF      NODE NAME
Microsoft 33024 Stephen   58u   REG    1,9    12055 149608590 test.docx