Filemon for MacOS X

Sherm Pendley <spamtrap.TakeThisOut@dot-app.org> wrote:

 > Daniel T. wrote:
 >
  > > I'm looking for some kind of utility that can tell me what files/paths a
  > > program/process attempts to open/create.
 >
 > It's a standard Unix command: lsof

Thanks, but AFAICT lsof only shows a list of files that the program has
successfully opened. I'm looking for a list of open attempts. In other
words if the program tried to open a particular file for writing but
couldn't do it, I want something that will tell me where the program was
trying to write to.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Filemon for MacOS X 

In article <postmaster-4C662A.22185323112004.TakeThisOut@news1.east.earthlink.net>,
"Daniel T." <postmaster.TakeThisOut@earthlink.net> wrote:

 > I'm looking for some kind of utility that can tell me what files/paths a
 > program/process attempts to open/create. Something like the way Filemon
 > works for Windows. Does anyone know of such a utility?

I do not know whether they look or behave 'like the way Filemon works
for Windows', but take a look at fs_usage, sc_usage and/or ktrace.

Reinder<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Reinder Verlinde <reinder DeleteThis @verlinde.invalid> wrote:

 > In article <postmaster-4C662A.22185323112004 DeleteThis @news1.east.earthlink.net>,
 > "Daniel T." <postmaster DeleteThis @earthlink.net> wrote:
 >
  > > I'm looking for some kind of utility that can tell me what files/paths a
  > > program/process attempts to open/create. Something like the way Filemon
  > > works for Windows. Does anyone know of such a utility?
 >
 > I do not know whether they look or behave 'like the way Filemon works
 > for Windows', but take a look at fs_usage, sc_usage and/or ktrace.

After some basic experimentation, fs_usage is close to what I want. It
doesn't seem to list failed open attempts though and that is exactly
what I am looking for. Maybe if I explained why I need something like
this.

The idea is to find a tool that shows what files a particular program is
attempting to open, and wether it is attempting read or write access so
that I know how to set up file/folder permissions for users.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Filemon for MacOS X 

In article <postmaster-75E32A.12310025112004.DeleteThis@news1.east.earthlink.net>,
"Daniel T." <postmaster.DeleteThis@earthlink.net> wrote:

 > After some basic experimentation, fs_usage is close to what I want. It
 > doesn't seem to list failed open attempts though and that is exactly
 > what I am looking for. Maybe if I explained why I need something like
 > this.

On my system, it does:

reinder> sudo fs_usage -e -f filesys | grep open &
reinder> cat doesNotExist

19:15:00 open /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib 0.000051 cat
19:15:00 open /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib 0.000045 cat
19:15:00 open doesNotExist 0.000129 cat

Perhaps the application you are targeting does a stat instead of an open?

Reinder<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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Reinder Verlinde <reinder RemoveThis @verlinde.invalid> wrote:

 > In article <postmaster-75E32A.12310025112004 RemoveThis @news1.east.earthlink.net>,
 > "Daniel T." <postmaster RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote:
 >
  > > After some basic experimentation, fs_usage is close to what I want. It
  > > doesn't seem to list failed open attempts though and that is exactly
  > > what I am looking for. Maybe if I explained why I need something like
  > > this.
 >
 > On my system, it does:
 >
 > reinder> sudo fs_usage -e -f filesys | grep open &
 > reinder> cat doesNotExist
 >
 > 19:15:00 open /usr/lib/libSystem.B.dylib 0.000051 cat
 > 19:15:00 open /usr/lib/system/libmathCommon.A.dylib 0.000045 cat
 > 19:15:00 open doesNotExist 0.000129 cat
 >
 > Perhaps the application you are targeting does a stat instead of an open?

Yes, you are quite correct... Thanks for pointing that out.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
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