FAQ045

From the ALSA wiki

How can I find which processes are using Alsa devices?

Short answer: man fuser

Longer answer from Takashi on ALSA mailing-list,

On 2.6 with sysfs:

See /sys/class/sound and check the corresponding devices.

On others:

Check the minor number of each device file and compare with the list on /proc/asound/devices.

Example on 2.6;

   # fuser -v /dev/snd/*
   
                        USER        PID ACCESS COMMAND
   /dev/snd/controlC0   admin      7575 f....  kmix
                        admin     14841 f....  xmms

Also useful might be using lsof:

lsof -n |grep "/dev/snd"