robust locking

[Randal Schwartz]

In article <2320 at cirrusl.UUCP>, dhesi%cirrusl (Rahul Dhesi) writes:
|						 But if the host name in
| the lock file is that of a different host, we refuse to supersede the
| lock.

This is incomplete.  You might as well *never* supersede a lock with
this scheme.  What if "different host" has crashed?

Isn't the proper solution something like lockf?  Or is that a BSD-ism,
or shunned by those in-the-know?  (It wasn't in the One True Unix, so
I can't make any comments on how used and useful it is.)

| I recommend this locking scheme in place of the usual pid-only lock
| file for all software, not just rn and nn.

Why?  You've jumped overboard and still haven't solved the problem of
water leaking into the boat. :-)

Just another puzzled Unix hacker and news reader,
-- 
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