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Re: Mixing flock() and lockfiles

1996-07-10 10:20:05


On Tue, 9 Jul 1996, Philip Guenther wrote:

Actually, the pop server probably does dotlocking using $MAIL.lock
and/or fcntl() locking; the /tmp/.$LOGNAME.pop file is not actually a
lockfile in any implementation I know, but rather the fixed name of the
temporary file.  Looking at the qpopper-2.2 source I see that it

In contrast, the IPOP3D server from Washtington.edu does use dot-locking
and a pseudo LOCKF call to FCNTL. It uses /tmp/.<number>.<INODE> to
generate each lock file, and the file exists so long as there is a network
connection to the server (or the network connection isn't abnormally
terminated).

doesn't care whether or not the /tmp/.$LOGNAME.pop file exists, and in
fact it leaves the file there when it exists, thus making it totally
unsuitable as a lockfile.  (qpopper _does_ use fcntl locking on $MAIL,
as well as /tmp/.$LOGNAME.pop, and, on Solaris, it also does dotlocking
using $MAIL.lock, as implemented by Solaris's libmail.)

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