Anyone ever use fuser,
i tried this command fuser /database.bk
but it only returns datbase.bk:

I read some of the forums online, one of them said when he used fuser, it broke down the box, i really don't want that happen.

I thought fuser is to see who is accessing that file, right?
any help is greatly appreciated. i have been searching online, and there is not that much help on fuser.

thanks.

The command fuser is used to list processes using a file. If nothing is return, then the file is not use by anyone at that time. If the file is used, you will get the PID of users using the file:

I don't see how fuser command could cause any problem to your system, maybe someone has an other opinion.

If running fuser causes a problem to occur, the system was broken before fuser was run. But I have never seen anything like that happen.

thanks for your reply. yes, you are right, no one was using that file.
yes, it is strange that fuser will bring down the system. don't think so either.

thanks.

Strange question, but.. how do you actually OPEN a file to test this behaivour ? I ask this because I tried with vi thefile but fuser shows another process different than the session where I actually executed vi thefile. Which leads me to think that probably vi open up a new version of the file to edit it.

Try:
sleep 5000 < somefile