Hey guys,
How do I check if a file is opened/being used by another process/user in AIX?

Let's say, in one session I have a file opened via vi
% vi /home/user1/testfile.txt

Now in another session, let's say user2, how would they verify that the file /home/user1/testfile.txt is not opened/as being updated before doing anything to /home/user1/testfile.txt ????

From second session, I tried:
% fuser /home/user1/testfile.txt

and the results are coming back for both opened or not opened as:
/home/user1/testfile.txt:

Please help me to get to the correct answer.

Thanks in advance to everyone.

Nick.

Hi drnick911@yahoo.com,

Try running the following command:

Hi,
I'm not quite sure but I think vi opens the file for reading and the saves it into temporary work file. Then the file is closed.
So you might not find your file open.
I'm not quite sure, but you should try another application to keep your file open.

I hope that will help you

Hi,

I've found something better it is about vim but should also work with vi.
http://vim.1045645.n5.nabble.com/Dis...td1177632.html

I don't think vi has a swapfile variable to set...maybe wrong or maybe different versions, but not sure if this applies unless they installed vim manually...


Acid
AIX Commands, Tools, Scripts and Explanations

Try

1 members found this post helpful.

I think part of the problem may be that files like text files (and executables) are only open for a very short time while being loaded into memory.

Only if changed, do the contents get copied back to the original file (in ths scenario you describe), and again, the files are only open for a short time while writing back.

1 members found this post helpful.

@rainbowsally
yep thats what I think too. vi opens the file just a short time for reading and then after that the file becomes closed again.

Yep vi will read the file and then create a temporary file in /var/tmp to work with.

I have vi a file called test_file and left it open. I then start a new session and enter the below

[root@server:/root]# lsof | grep test_file
[root@server:/root]# cd /var/tmp
[root@server:/var/tmp]# ls -lrt | tail -1
-rw------- 1 root system 0 28 Jan 13:14 Ex64160
[root@server:/var/tmp]# fuser Ex64160
Ex64160: 9564160
[root@server:/var/tmp]# ps -fp 9564160
UID PID PPID C STIME TTY TIME CMD
root 9564160 8806412 0 13:14:51 pts/1 0:00 vi test_file