Treat NFS ESTALE fds as unlinked for +L selection#345
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jiegec merged 1 commit intolsof-org:masterfrom Jan 29, 2026
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On NFS clients, a file can be deleted on the server while still
referenced by an open fd on the client. In such cases, stat(2)/lstat(2)
on /proc/<pid>/fd/<n> may fail with ESTALE ("Stale file handle").
lsof's +L selection is commonly used to find open-but-unlinked files,
but ESTALE fds were not selectable. Record per-fd errno from statsafely()
/ lstatsafely() and, when +L selection is enabled (SELNLINK), mark the
file as matching and annotate NAME with " (STALE)".
This helps identify NFS open-but-deleted/stale file handles using existing
+L workflows without introducing new command-line options.
Signed-off-by: Jeff Xie <xiehuan09@gmail.com>
jiegec
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Jan 29, 2026
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Nice approach! Sorry that I forgot to review the previous pr, but I agree that this is a better approach.
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On NFS clients, a file can be deleted on the server while still referenced by an open fd on the client. In such cases, stat(2)/lstat(2) on /proc//fd/ may fail with ESTALE ("Stale file handle").
lsof's +L selection is commonly used to find open-but-unlinked files, but ESTALE fds were not selectable. Record per-fd errno from statsafely() / lstatsafely() and, when +L selection is enabled (SELNLINK), mark the file as matching and annotate NAME with " (STALE)".
This helps identify NFS open-but-deleted/stale file handles using existing +L workflows without introducing new command-line options.