How can I find which process has opened a specific file?

Posted by Hosam Aly on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by Hosam Aly
Published on 2009-02-01T09:00:48Z Indexed on 2011/01/17 9:53 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 491

Filed under:

winapi

|

files

How can I find which processes have a specific file opened, and their open, access and share modes? Additionally, is it possible to change these values for a process? Or is it even possible to open a file for reading if it is already opened for exclusive access by another process?

Please note that I don't want to invalidate the handle of the process having the file opened. I just want to be able to access the file (if possible).

(I'm mainly asking about Windows, but solutions for other platforms are welcome, since they contribute to the community's knowledge.)

Edit: I found some answers for my first question here and there.

Edit 2: Thanks everybody for the tools you mentioned, but I am mainly looking for programmatical techniques (e.g. using Win32 APIs).

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about winapi

C: WinAPI CreateDIBitmap() from byte[] problem

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have been working on this problem for a while now. I am trying to add JPEG support to a program with libjpeg. For the most part, it is working fairly well, But for some JPEGs, they show up like the picture on the left. It may not be obvious, but the background shows up with alternating red green… >>> More
mouse_event WinAPI call not working when cursor is over Flash

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, I am writing a small program which can simulate mouse clicks at specified positions. Using the Win32 API call mouse_event like so: [DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, CallingConvention = CallingConvention.StdCall)] public static extern void mouse_event(uint dwFlags, uint dx, uint… >>> More
Custom form designer, move/resize controls using WinAPI

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have to fix some problems and enchance form designer written long ago for a database project. In Design Panel class code I encountered these lines private void DesignPanel_MouseDown(object sender, MouseEventArgs e) { if (e.Button == MouseButtons.Left) { (sender as Control).Capture… >>> More
winapi c - read/write mbr of system drive

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Does anyone have any example code that shows how to identify the system boot harddisk, and read/write the mbr from the harddisk in windows xp and vista? I know createfile can be used. But I do not know how to properly identify which device is the boot device. Like how do you find out which ones… >>> More
How to use WINAPI from newer SDK but still using the old SDK in WindowsMobile.

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Specifically, I want to use Point-to-point Message Queue but because I am still using legacy codes in eVC++ 4 and it only support until PocketPC 2003SE SDK, I cannot find CreateMsgQueue and friends in the headers (the port to newer VisualStudio is still in progess) I am using the Message Queue to… >>> More

Related posts about files

Unzip individual files from multiple zip files and extract those individual files to home directory

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I would like to unzip individual files. These files have a .txt extension. These files also live within multiple zipped files. Here is the command I'm trying to use. unzip -jn /path/to/zipped/files/zipArchiveFile2011\*.zip /path/to/specific/individual/files/myfiles2011*.txt -d /path/to/home/directory/for/extract/ From… >>> More
Storing image files, psd files, ai files, flash in subversion

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi, Can I store large amounts of image files in subversion. My designers usually create these designs and store them anywhere on their pc and there's no system. Can I store the files in an svn repository. That way I can also protect my data against unauthorized access and its also easier to archive… >>> More
Copy files in Linux, avoid the copy if files do exist in destination

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hi, I need to copy a /home/user folder from one hardisk to another one. It has 100000 files and around 10G size. I use cp -r /origin /destination sometines I get some errors due to broken links, permissions and so on. So I fix the error, and need to start again the copy. I wonder how could… >>> More
Best way to convert pdf files to tiff files

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I have around 1000 pdf filesand I need to convert them to 300 dpi tiff files. What is the best way to do this? If there is an SDK or something or a tool that can be scripted that would be ideal. >>> More
what is the difference between ELF files and bin files

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
The final images produced by compliers contain both bin file and extended loader format ELf file ,what is the difference between too , especially the utility of ELF file. >>> More