Forcing compton to free directory I often have trouble unnounting filesystems because `compton` is keeping a subdirectory open. Here is one line from `lsof` I have right now: compton 30043 valmi cwd DIR 254,0 32768 7485 /media/truecrypt1/videos I cannot for the life of me figure what it is doing with this directory (it is not used by any other process nor was it ever opened in any application besides bash). So far, I always just ended up restarting X when this happened, but I would love for someone to tell me how to make `compton` understand that it should let go my directory, or as a consolation tell me what it is doing with it. If this is relevant, this is compton-git 20121102-2 from Debian stable, with 3.5.0-7 and everything up-to-date.

The fourth column of `lsof`'s output tells you that this directory is the _current working directory_ (cwd) of the process. Most probably `compton` was started in this directory. Most probably you might kill the process and restart it in another directory (e.g. `/`).

You _might_ try forcing it to leave the directory with this hack:

1. Attach a GDB to the process by issuing

$ gdb -p


where `` would be the PID of the process,

2. Inside `gdb` issue

> p chdir("/")
> detach
> quit





`$` and `>` are the respective program's prompts.

**Note:** In case `compton` has a particular reason for being in this directory this might crash the process in a mere horrible way. I didn't find any calls in `compton`'s source code that suggest it is there on purpose, but be warned. On the other hand… this would also solve your problem. ;)