How do I log file system read/writes by filename in Linux?

Posted by Casey on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Casey
Published on 2010-12-29T01:26:34Z Indexed on 2010/12/29 1:56 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 275

Filed under:

linux

|

logging

|

filesystem

|

disk-monitoring

|

file-monitoring

I'm looking for a simple method that will log file system operations. It should display the name of the file being accessed or modified.

I'm familiar with powertop, and it appears this works to an extent, in so much that it show the user files that were written to. Is there any other utilities that support this feature.

Some of my findings:

powertop: best for write access logging, but more focused on CPU activity
iotop: shows real time disk access by process, but not file name
lsof: shows the open files per process, but not real time file access
iostat: shows the real time I/O performance of disk/arrays but does not indicate file or process

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about linux

apt-get install and update fail

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I've got a problem with apt-get update and apt-get install ... commands . every time update or installing fails and errors are : Get:1 http://dl.google.com stable Release.gpg [198B] Ign http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable/main Translation-en_US Get:2 http://dl… >>> More
kernel module compiling error

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
sh@ubuntu:/home/ccpp/helloworld$ make gcc-4.6 -O2 -DMODULE -D_KERNEL_ -W -Wall -Wstrict-prototypes -Wmissing-prototypes -isystem /lib/modules/`uname -r`/build/include -c -o hello-1.o hello-1.c hello-1.c:4:0: warning: "MODULE" redefined [enabled by default] <command-line>:0:0: note: this is… >>> More
Build-Essentials installation failing

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I am having trouble accessing the several critical header files that show to be a part of the build process. The "Ubuntu Software Center" shows "Build Essentials" as installed: Next I did the following two commands, which did not improve the problem: ~$ sudo apt-get install build-essential [sudo]… >>> More
Updating Debian kernel

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I'm trying to update my Debian machine to 2.6.32-46 (which is the new stable). However, after doing apt-get update my apt-cache search linux-image shows me: linux-headers-2.6.32-5-486 - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-486 linux-headers-2.6.32-5-686-bigmem - Header files for Linux 2.6.32-5-686-bigmem linux-headers-2… >>> More
Serial connection over a single USB cable (Windows to linux, or linux to linux)

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I'm helping out with a project for an embedded device that only has USB and no serial. This device is running Linux. These days, when we need to connect to a serial port on a device we typically use a USB to serial adapter (on something like a phone system or a load balancing device, etc). I would… >>> More

Related posts about logging

log file is not getting created using JDK logging with Commons-logging

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
When I run the TestJcLLoggingService class log messages are coming to Console but no log file is created, please help me if you know the answer. two source files are pasted below. TestJcLLoggingService.java package com.amadeus.psp.pasd.logging; import org.apache.commons.logging.Log; import org… >>> More
Python logging before you run logging.basicConfig?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
It appears that if you invoke logging.info() BEFORE you run logging.basicConfig, the logging.basicConfig call doesn't have any effect. In fact, no logging occurs. Where is this behavior documented? I don't really understand. >>> More
Python: combine logging and wx so that logging stream is redirectet to stdout/stderr frame

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Here's the thing: I'm trying to combine the logging module with wx.App()'s redirect feature. My intention is to log to a file AND to stderr. But I want stderr/stdout redirected to a separate frame as is the feature of wx.App. My test code: import logging import wx class MyFrame(wx.Frame): … >>> More
Redirect logging output using custom logging handler

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi Guys, I'm using a module in my python app that writes a lot a of messages using the logging module. Initially I was using this in a console application and it was pretty easy to get the logging output to display on the console using a console handler. Now I've developed a GUI version of my app… >>> More
Java Logger API

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
This is a more like a tip rather than technical write up and serves as a quick intro for newbies. The logger API helps to diagnose application level or JDK level issues at runtime. There are 7 levels which decide the detailing in logging (SEVERE, WARNING, INFO, CONFIG, FINE, FINER, FINEST)… >>> More