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Suramya Tomar [security at suramya.com]
Hey,
I know it sounds kind of weird but I want to know if it is possible to identify what process/program is creating this particular directory on my system.
Basically, in my home folder a directory called "Downloads" keeps getting created at random times. The directory doesn't have any content inside it and is just an empty folder.
I thought that it was probably being created by one of the applications I run at the time but when I tried to narrow down the application by using each one separately and waiting for the directory to be created I wasn't able to replicate the issue.
I also tried searching on Google for this but seems like no one else is having this issue or maybe my searches are too generic.
I am running Debian Testing (Squeeze) and the applications I normally have running are:
* Firefox (3.6) * Thunderbird (3.0.1) * Dolphin (Default KDE 4.3.4 version) * Konsole (3-4 instances) * EditPlus using wine * Amarok (1.4.10) * ksensors * Tomboy Notes * xchat * gnome-system-monitor
BTW, I noticed the same behavior when I was using Ubuntu last year (9.10).
Any idea's on how to figure this out? Have any of you noticed something similar on your system?
- Suramya
-- ------------------------------------------------- Name : Suramya Tomar Homepage URL: http://www.suramya.com -------------------------------------------------************************************************************
Amit Saha [amitsaha.in at gmail.com]
Hey Suramya, TAG:
On Thu, Jan 28, 2010 at 3:34 PM, Suramya Tomar <security@suramya.com> wrote:
> Hey, > > I know it sounds kind of weird but I want to know if it is possible to > identify what process/program is creating this particular directory on my > system. > > Basically, in my home folder a directory called "Downloads" keeps getting > created at random times. The directory doesn't have any content inside it > and is just an empty folder. > > I thought that it was probably being created by one of the applications I > run at the time but when I tried to narrow down the application by using > each one separately and waiting for the directory to be created I wasn't > able to replicate the issue. > > I also tried searching on Google for this but seems like no one else is > having this issue or maybe my searches are too generic. > > I am running Debian Testing (Squeeze) and the applications I normally have > running are: > > * Firefox (3.6)
With a 0.9 probability, I would guess its Firefox which creates this directory, for saving your "Downloads". But, http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/ may be a good candidate to look at to find the program doing this.
HTH, Amit
-- Journal: http://amitksaha.wordpress.com, µ-blog: http://twitter.com/amitsaha Freenode: cornucopic in #scheme, #lisp, #math,#linux, #python
Neil Youngman [ny at youngman.org.uk]
On Thursday 28 January 2010 10:04:19 Suramya Tomar wrote:
> I thought that it was probably being created by one of the applications > I run at the time but when I tried to narrow down the application by > using each one separately and waiting for the directory to be created I > wasn't able to replicate the issue.
I'd try something like
rmdir ~/Downloads while [ ! -d ~/Downloads ]; do sleep 1; done # Wait for directory to appear lsof | grep Downloads # see who is using directory
The above is completely untested.
If you look at the lsof man page you may find some helpful options to use.
HTH
Neil Youngman
Thomas Adam [thomas.adam22 at gmail.com]
On 28 January 2010 10:24, Neil Youngman <ny@youngman.org.uk> wrote:
> On Thursday 28 January 2010 10:04:19 Suramya Tomar wrote: >> I thought that it was probably being created by one of the applications >> I run at the time but when I tried to narrow down the application by >> using each one separately and waiting for the directory to be created I >> wasn't able to replicate the issue. > > I'd try something like > > rmdir ~/Downloads > while [ ! -d ~/Downloads ]; do sleep 1; done # Wait for directory to appear > lsof | grep Downloads # see who is using directory > > The above is completely untested.
Why not use inotify?
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-ubuntu-inotify/index.html
Exactly what this was designed for,
-- Thomas Adam
Suramya Tomar [security at suramya.com]
Hey Amit,
> > With a 0.9 probability, I would guess its Firefox which creates this > directory, for saving your "Downloads". But, > http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/ may be a good candidate to look at to > find the program doing this.
That's what I thought, however if Firefox was the one creating the directory I would expect it to do it everytime I download something which is not the case here.
For example the last time the directory was created was at 5:23 am when I was sleeping and my computer was mostly idle.
Thanks for the link though, its a very interesting read.
- Suramya
-- ------------------------------------------------- Name : Suramya Tomar Homepage URL: http://www.suramya.com -------------------------------------------------************************************************************
Suramya Tomar [security at suramya.com]
Hey Neil,
> rmdir ~/Downloads > while [ ! -d ~/Downloads ]; do sleep 1; done # Wait for directory to appear > lsof | grep Downloads # see who is using directory > > The above is completely untested. >
I tried the above but it didn't help. Basically what happened is that by the time the above condition was satisfied and the lsof command ran there was no process which was accessing that directory.
So it seems like the directory is created and then left alone. There is never any content created inside it.
Thanks for the advise though.
- Suramya
-- ------------------------------------------------- Name : Suramya Tomar Homepage URL: http://www.suramya.com -------------------------------------------------************************************************************
Suramya Tomar [security at suramya.com]
Hi Adam,
> Why not use inotify? > > http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/linux/library/l-ubuntu-inotify/index.html > > Exactly what this was designed for,
Thanks for the hint. I will try it out and will keep the list posted on what I find out.
- Suramya
-- ------------------------------------------------- Name : Suramya Tomar Homepage URL: http://www.suramya.com ------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Any errors in spelling, tact, or fact are transmission errors.