On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 8:38 AM Jan Claeys <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Mon, 2026-01-12 at 20:03 -0500, Greg Wooledge wrote: > > I didn't > > even think that was possible on Linux -- for a process to continue > > running after its program file on disk has been unlinked. > > That literally happens every time you upgrade a running program?
To add to Jan's reply, it can happen with shared objects and data files, too. I once deleted a SQLite database that was actually being used. Luckily (for me), the program had the database open, and I was able to restore the database by using the open file descriptor held by the program. The answer was something like <https://superuser.com/questions/283102/how-to-recover-deleted-file-if-it-is-still-opened-by-some-process>, but I don't recall the exact details. It was too long ago. The takeaway is, the file is not actually deleted until the final unlink and the inodes are freed. Jeff
