From: Rodrigo Barbosa <rodrigob at suespammers.org> > Actually, there is another neat trick for rpm based systems. > You see, rpm, prior to removing anything, will rename that to ${NAME}.OLD. > So, libc.so.6 becomes libc.so.6.OLD, and then removed. > As we all know, if that library is currently open by any running process, > it won't be imediately removed (even tho you can't see it with a 'ls'). > The trick is pretty simple: lsof | grep OLD > That, of course, only aplies if you are doing everything using RPM > (yum, redhat-update, apt-get). That's because open file handles work in inode number, not filename. So you can rename things out-of-the-way for existing file handles, while creating a new file that will be opened for any new ones. Devices, processes, etc... in UNIX pretty much have the same logic as files. Which is why I love UNIX -- everything acts like a file, with similar meta-data, etc... -- Bryan J. Smith mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org