Unix Tip: Using fuser to determine why a file system is busy

By Sandra Henry-Stocker

The fuser command can save you a lot of time when you need to quickly determine how a file system or a particular file is being used, particularly when you cannot unmount a file system due to current usage. The script in this article provides more information on the processes keeping a file system busy by using fuser to supply process IDs to ps and ps to then display additional information about each process. Read more.