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this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2025
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Windows won't let you rename a file that's being used either.
Yeah, super annoying. In Linux you can rename or move it and the app using it doesn't care.
Although having the option of listing the app using a file so I can kill the app would also be really nice to have. I'm sure Linux has something for that too, but I don't know what it is.
fuser
I can't remember the other program that'll do it.
But there's another one that'll list all the processes using a file.
Tip of my tongue fuck.
lsof | grep
That's the one
You can use PowerToys on windows to see what app is using a particular file
That's actually a thing, but I'm not entirely sure in which cases. Probably only for services and not apps, but I've done that myself where deleting a file was impossible, but renaming it and deleting it worked.
Maybe it's only possible in certain cases, but I can tell you for certain it's possible with running exe's and loaded dll's. I have a CMake step on Windows that does this rename hack so my builds don't fail if I still have the app running.