lsof is a command meaning "list open files", which is used in many Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
systems to report a list of all open files and the processes that opened them. This open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
utility was developed and supported by Vic Abell, the retired Associate Director of the Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
Computing Center. It works in and supports several Unix flavors.
Open files in the system include disk files, pipes
Pipes
Pipes may refer to:*Pipe, a cylindrical conveyance*PIPES *Yahoo! Pipes*Pipeline *Bagpipes or Uilleann pipes*PIPE deal or private investment in public equity*Pipes , a Transformers character...
In computer networking, an Internet socket or network socket is an endpoint of a bidirectional inter-process communication flow across an Internet Protocol-based computer network, such as the Internet....
and devices opened by all processes. One use for this command is when a disk cannot be unmounted because (unspecified) files are in use. The listing of open files can be consulted (suitably filtered if necessary) to identify the process that is using the files.
stat is a Unix system call that returns useful data about a file inode. The semantics of stat vary between operating systems. As an example, the Unix command ls uses it to retrieve information on : time of last modification , time of last status change and time of last access .-stat functions and...
strace is a debugging utility for Linux and some other Unix-like systems to monitor the system calls used by a program and all the signals it receives, similar to "truss" utility in other Unix systems...
Windows Sysinternals is a part of the Microsoft TechNet website which offers technical resources and utilities to manage, diagnose, troubleshoot, and monitor a Microsoft Windows environment. Originally, the Sysinternals website was created in 1996 and was operated by the company Winternals...
- the equivalent for Windows (Find menu -> Find Handle or DLL)
