What is this?

psfiles is a simple utility to view file system activity of Linux processes. Only regular (p)read(v), (p)write(v), open(at), close, rename(at), unlink(at) syscalls are traced. If the file has been memory mapped, this utility will NOT show the number of bytes read or written.

Features

• start new process or attach to existing one and trace its file system activity
• output results to standard output or save results to file
• custom results sorting and filtering

System requirements

• 64 bit architecture
• Linux kernel >= 5.3
• Glibc >= 2.31 or Musl >= 1.2.0

Options

• [--output, -o]: path to output file. Default: stdout.
• [--delay, -d]: interval (seconds) between file list updates. Default: 1.
• [--sort, -s]: column name to sort by (append "-" to column name to sorting in descending order). Default: path.
• [--filter, -f]: glob to filter file paths. Default: *.
• --pid, -p: attach to existing process with specified pid.
• --cmdline, -c: spawn new process with specified cmdline. Incompatible with --pid option. It should be the last option.

Columns

• path - path to file,
• wsize - write size in bytes,
• rsize - read size in bytes,
• wcount - (p)write(v) syscalls count,
• rcount - (p)read(v) syscalls count,
• ocount - open(at)/creat syscalls count,
• ccount - close syscalls count,
• spec - special file events indicator: memory map (m), rename (r), unlink (u),
• lthread, laccess - thread id and time of the last system call listed above.

Usage examples

psfiles should be launched by a privileged user (CAP_SYS_PTRACE capability is required).

Start new process, sort descending by write size, output to file, update output every minute:

• psfiles -d 60 -s wsize- -o output.txt -c emacs /home/user/cpp/main.cpp

Attach to existing process, sort by path, output to stdout, update output every second, filter files from user home directory:

• psfiles -f "/home/user/*" -p $(pidof gedit)

Control

If --output option was not specified, keyboard control is available:

• 0 - 9: sort by specified column (0 - path, 1 - wsize, etc)
• s: toggle sorting order
• n: show next page (scroll down)
• p: show previous page (scroll up)
• q: quit

Screencast

How to build?

• git clone https://github.com/mukovnin/psfiles
• cd psfiles
• cmake . -B build
• cd build
• make
• if needed, run make install

If you are an Arch Linux user, there is AUR package.