Using in PowerShell, how can I check if an application is locking a file?
I like to check which process/application is using the file, so that I can close it.
Using in PowerShell, how can I check if an application is locking a file?
I like to check which process/application is using the file, so that I can close it.
You can do this with the SysInternals tool handle.exe. Try something like this:
PS> $handleOut = handle
PS> foreach ($line in $handleOut) {
if ($line -match '\S+\spid:') {
$exe = $line
}
elseif ($line -match 'C:\\Windows\\Fonts\\segoeui\.ttf') {
"$exe - $line"
}
}
MSASCui.exe pid: 5608 ACME\hillr - 568: File (---) C:\Windows\Fonts\segoeui.ttf
...
You should be able to use the openfiles command from either the regular command line or from PowerShell.
The openfiles built-in tool can be used for file shares or for local files. For local files, you must turn on the tool and restart the machine (again, just for first time use). I believe the command to turn this feature on is:
openfiles /local on
For example (works on Windows Vista x64):
openfiles /query | find "chrome.exe"
That successfully returns file handles associated with Chrome. You can also pass in a file name to see the process currently accessing that file.
This could help you: Use PowerShell to find out which process locks a file. It parses the System.Diagnostics.ProcessModuleCollection Modules property of each process and it looks for the file path of the locked file:
$lockedFile="C:\Windows\System32\wshtcpip.dll"
Get-Process | foreach{$processVar = $_;$_.Modules | foreach{if($_.FileName -eq $lockedFile){$processVar.Name + " PID:" + $processVar.id}}}
You can find a solution using Sysinternal's Handle utility.
I had to modify the code (slightly) to work with PowerShell 2.0:
#/* http://jdhitsolutions.com/blog/powershell/3744/friday-fun-find-file-locking-process-with-powershell/ */
Function Get-LockingProcess {
[cmdletbinding()]
Param(
[Parameter(Position=0, Mandatory=$True,
HelpMessage="What is the path or filename? You can enter a partial name without wildcards")]
[Alias("name")]
[ValidateNotNullorEmpty()]
[string]$Path
)
# Define the path to Handle.exe
# //$Handle = "G:\Sysinternals\handle.exe"
$Handle = "C:\tmp\handle.exe"
# //[regex]$matchPattern = "(?<Name>\w+\.\w+)\s+pid:\s+(?<PID>\b(\d+)\b)\s+type:\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s+\w+:\s+(?<Path>.*)"
# //[regex]$matchPattern = "(?<Name>\w+\.\w+)\s+pid:\s+(?<PID>\d+)\s+type:\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s+\w+:\s+(?<Path>.*)"
[regex]$matchPattern = "(?<Name>\w+\.\w+)\s+pid:\s+(?<PID>\d+)\s+type:\s+(?<Type>\w+)\s+(?<User>\.+)\s+\w+:\s+(?<Path>.*)"
$data = &$handle -u $path
$MyMatches = $matchPattern.Matches( $data )
# //if ($MyMatches.value) {
if ($MyMatches.count) {
$MyMatches | foreach {
[pscustomobject]@{
FullName = $_.groups["Name"].value
Name = $_.groups["Name"].value.split(".")[0]
ID = $_.groups["PID"].value
Type = $_.groups["Type"].value
User = $_.groups["User"].value.trim()
Path = $_.groups["Path"].value
toString = "pid: $($_.groups["PID"].value), user: $($_.groups["User"].value), image: $($_.groups["Name"].value)"
} #hashtable
} #foreach
} #if data
else {
Write-Warning "No matching handles found"
}
} #end function
Example:
PS C:\tmp> . .\Get-LockingProcess.ps1
PS C:\tmp> Get-LockingProcess C:\tmp\foo.txt
Name Value
---- -----
ID 2140
FullName WINWORD.EXE
toString pid: 2140, user: J17\Administrator, image: WINWORD.EXE
Path C:\tmp\foo.txt
Type File
User J17\Administrator
Name WINWORD
PS C:\tmp>
I've seen a nice solution at Locked file detection that uses only PowerShell and .NET framework classes:
function TestFileLock {
## Attempts to open a file and trap the resulting error if the file is already open/locked
param ([string]$filePath )
$filelocked = $false
$fileInfo = New-Object System.IO.FileInfo $filePath
trap {
Set-Variable -name filelocked -value $true -scope 1
continue
}
$fileStream = $fileInfo.Open( [System.IO.FileMode]::OpenOrCreate,[System.IO.FileAccess]::ReadWrite, [System.IO.FileShare]::None )
if ($fileStream) {
$fileStream.Close()
}
$obj = New-Object Object
$obj | Add-Member Noteproperty FilePath -value $filePath
$obj | Add-Member Noteproperty IsLocked -value $filelocked
$obj
}
I like what the command prompt (CMD) has, and it can be used in PowerShell as well:
tasklist /m <dllName>
Just note that you can't enter the full path of the DLL file. Just the name is good enough.
If you modify the above function slightly like below it will return True or False (you will need to execute with full admin rights) e.g. Usage:
PS> TestFileLock "c:\pagefile.sys"
function TestFileLock {
## Attempts to open a file and trap the resulting error if the file is already open/locked
param ([string]$filePath )
$filelocked = $false
$fileInfo = New-Object System.IO.FileInfo $filePath
trap {
Set-Variable -name Filelocked -value $true -scope 1
continue
}
$fileStream = $fileInfo.Open( [System.IO.FileMode]::OpenOrCreate, [System.IO.FileAccess]::ReadWrite, [System.IO.FileShare]::None )
if ($fileStream) {
$fileStream.Close()
}
$filelocked
}