Analysis updated 2026-05-18
Find out which process is holding a file open and preventing it from being deleted or unmounted.
Kill or pause a process directly from a live view of its open files.
Browse and fuzzy search open file locks across running processes on a Linux system.
| programmersd21/wlocks | awlx/packetyeeter | huey1in/kiroclaim | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stars | 13 | 13 | 13 |
| Language | Go | Go | Go |
| Setup difficulty | easy | hard | moderate |
| Complexity | 2/5 | 5/5 | 3/5 |
| Audience | ops devops | ops devops | ops devops |
Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.
Linux only, building from source requires Go 1.25 or newer.
wlocks is a terminal tool for Linux that shows you which running programs currently have which files open on your computer. It is meant as a friendlier, interactive replacement for older command line tools like lsof and fuser, which do the same basic job but only print a static list of text instead of letting you browse and act on the results. When you run it, wlocks shows a live, scrollable view of open files and the processes holding them, refreshing automatically about once a second by reading directly from the operating system's process information. You can move through the list with keyboard shortcuts, open a detail view for a specific entry showing its process ID, the full command that started it, its working directory, and how long it has held a file open, and use fuzzy search to quickly filter by process name, command, or file path. Results can be sorted by name, duration, process ID, or how the file is being accessed. Beyond just viewing, wlocks lets you act on what you find directly from the interface: you can kill a process, force kill one that resists a normal kill, or pause and resume a process, each with a confirmation step to prevent accidents. The tool also ships with nine visual themes you can cycle through or set as your default, and your preferences are saved to a small configuration file so they persist between sessions. Installing wlocks is straightforward on Linux: there is a package available for Arch Linux users, a prebuilt binary you can download and place on your system path for other Linux systems, or you can build it yourself from source if you have Go 1.25 or newer installed. The project is written entirely in Go with no external runtime dependencies, and it is released under the MIT license.
An interactive terminal tool that shows which processes have which files open, replacing lsof and fuser with a live browsable view.
Mainly Go. The stack also includes Go.
Setup difficulty is rated easy, with roughly 5min to a first successful run.
Mainly ops devops.
This repo across BitVibe Labs
Verify against the repo before relying on details.