lsof command

ls command
ls command

lsof command

List open files and network connections for processes in Linux.

lsof command is an advanced Unix command that is typically not installed with a Unix/Linux distro but can be easily obtained from standard package repositories in most of modern OS distributions.

lsof stands for list open files, but since everything in Unix is a file, you get a lot more than just a list of files open by a given process.

What lsof Is Great For

  • Show all the network connections open on your system (with process names to see what is responsible for each connection)
  • Show list of files open on the operating system or single process level
  • Confirm what is using a specific file or directory
  • Confirm what is using a particular network port

See also