fnotifystat is a tool that has been designed to watch linux file activity
sudo apt-get install fnotifystat
sudo fnotifystat
Total Open Close Read Write PID Process Pathname
7.0 1.0 1.0 5.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /proc/cpuinfo
6.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/topology/physical_package_id
6.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/topology/physical_package_id
6.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/topology/physical_package_id
6.0 2.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/topology/physical_package_id
4.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/node
4.0 1.0 1.0 2.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/node/node0
4.0 2.0 2.0 0.0 0.0 15313 gnome-calendar /usr/share/zoneinfo/Europe/London
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/topology/core_id
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/topology/thread_siblings_list
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/topology/core_id
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/topology/thread_siblings_list
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/topology/core_id
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/topology/thread_siblings_list
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/topology/core_id
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/topology/thread_siblings_list
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/online
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/cpu/present
3.0 1.0 1.0 1.0 0.0 2075 libvirtd /sys/devices/system/node/node0/meminfo
2.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 2.0 12174 xchat /home/cking/.xchat2/xchatlogs/FreeNode-#ubuntu-release.log
1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 12174 xchat /home/cking/.xchat2/xchatlogs/FreeNode-#ubuntu-desktop.log
1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 12174 xchat /home/cking/.xchat2/xchatlogs/FreeNode-#ubuntu-devel.log
1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 1.0 12174 xchat /home/cking/.xchat2/xchatlogs/FreeNode-#ubuntu-kernel.log
Show the top 10 active files every 60 seconds until stopped:
sudo fnotifystat -t 10 60
Show file acivity every 10 seconds just 6 times:
sudo fnotifystat 10 6
Show file activity of thunderbird and process ID 1827:
sudo fnotifystat -p thunderbird,1827
Show every file notify event and the top 20 active activity files over a single period of 5 minutes:
sudo sudo notifystat -v -d -c 5m 1
Just show every file notify event on /sys and /proc and no periodic statisics:
sudo fnotifystat -n -i /sys,/proc
Consult the fnotifystat man page for more information, it's quite a flexible tool.