****** Kernel ****** File Handles ============ List file handles for a certain pid:: ls -la /proc/$pid/fd Here is why closing file handles in Python is important:: python -c " files = [open('/tmp/fd_example_open_%d' % i) for i in range(20)] import os print 'Look at all those file handles noone uses! :D' print 'ls -la /proc/%d/fd' % os.getpid() raw_input('Press a key to continue. ') "