Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!pdn!tscs!tct!chip From: chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions Subject: Re: lockfile type locks Message-ID: <269DD17F.5D99@tct.uucp> Date: 13 Jul 90 13:49:51 GMT References: <1990Jul5.145451.28108@chinet.chi.il.us> <2699D97F.EF5@tct.uucp> Organization: ComDev/TCT, Sarasota, FL Lines: 16 According to peter@ficc.ferranti.com (Peter da Silva): >In practice, storing a PID in the file and doing a kill() on it may give >false positives, but they're usually harmless. Quite. However, the spurious removal problem continues -- how do I know that a correct negative means that I can remove the file *now*? In general, I can't. >The problem with kernel locking is all the incompatible "standards". It's almost universally available in *some* form. The point is to use any locking method that automatically notices when a process dies, so the kernel has to get involved at some point. If you have to use #ifdefs, well, that's life. -- Chip, the new t.b answer man ,