FAQ 5.20 Why can"t I just open(FH, ">file.lock")?

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5.20: Why can't I just open(FH, ">file.lock")?


A common bit of code NOT TO USE is this:

sleep(3) while -e "file.lock"; # PLEASE DO NOT USE
open(LCK, "> file.lock"); # THIS BROKEN CODE

This is a classic race condition: you take two steps to do something
which must be done in one. That's why computer hardware provides an
atomic test-and-set instruction. In theory, this "ought" to work:

sysopen(FH, "file.lock", O_WRONLY|O_EXCL|O_CREAT)
or die "can't open file.lock: $!";

except that lamentably, file creation (and deletion) is not atomic over
NFS, so this won't work (at least, not every time) over the net. Various
schemes involving link() have been suggested, but these tend to involve
busy-wait, which is also subdesirable.



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