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1 perry 1 DOTLOCKFILE
2 !!!DOTLOCKFILE
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 OPTIONS
7 RETURN VALUE
8 NOTES
9 BUGS
10 SEE ALSO
11 AUTHOR
12 ----
13 !!NAME
14
15
16 dotlockfile - Utility to manage lockfiles
17 !!SYNOPSIS
18
19
20 __/usr/bin/dotlockfile__ [[__-p__] [[__-c__]
21 [[__-u__] [[__-m__] [[__-l|-u__] [[__-r__
22 ''retries''] [[__lockfile]__
23 !!DESCRIPTION
24
25
26 __Dotlockfile__ is a command line utility to safely
27 create, test and remove lockfiles. Lockfiles are created in
28 an NFS-safe way. __Dotlockfile__ can lock and unlock
29 mailboxes even if the mailspool directory is only writable
30 by group mail.
31
32
33 The name __dotlockfile__ comes from the way mailboxes are
34 locked for updates on a lot of UNIX systems. A lockfile is
35 created with the same filename as the mailbox but with the
36 string __.lock''''
37
38
39 The names __dotlock__ and __lockfile__ were already
40 taken - hence the name __dotlockfile__
41 '':)''.
42 !!OPTIONS
43
44
45 __-l__
46
47
48 Create a lockfile. This is the default.
49
50
51 __-u__
52
53
54 Remove a lockfile.
55
56
57 __-c__
58
59
60 Check for the existence of a __valid__
61 lockfile.
62
63
64 __-p__
65
66
67 Write the ''process-id'' of the calling process into the
68 lockfile. Also when testing for an existing lockfile, check
69 the contents for a process-id to find out if the lockfile is
70 still valid.
71
72
73 __-r retries__
74
75
76 The number of times __dotlockfile__ tries to acquire the
77 lock before giving up. The initial sleep after failing to
78 acquire the lock is 5 seconds. After each next try, a sleep
79 of 5 seconds ''extra'' occurs up to a maximum sleep of 60
80 seconds between tries.
81
82
83 __-m__
84
85
86 Lock or unlock the current users mailbox. The path to the
87 mailbox is the default system mailspool directory (usually
88 ''/var/mail'') with the username as gotten from
89 ''getpwuid()'' appended. If the environment variable
90 ''$MAIL'' is set, that is used instead. Then the string
91 '''' is appended to get the name of the
92 actual lockfile.
93
94
95 lockfile
96
97
98 The lockfile to be created/removed, unless the __-m__
99 option is in effect.
100 !!RETURN VALUE
101
102
103 Zero on success, and non-zero on failure. For the __-c__
104 option, sucess means that a valid lockfile is already
105 present. When locking (the default, or the __-l__ option)
106 __dotlockfile__ returns the same values as the library
107 function ''lockfile_create''(3).
108 !!NOTES
109
110
111 The lockfile is created exactly as named on the command
112 line. The extension ''.lock'' is ''not'' automatically
113 added.
114
115
116 This utility is a lot like the lockfile(1) utility
117 included with ''procmail'', and the
118 ''mutt_dotlock''(1) utility included with ''mutt''.
119 However the command-line arguments differ, and so does the
120 return status. It is believed that ''dotlockfile'' is the
121 most flexible implementation, since it automatically detects
122 when it needs to use priviliges to lock a mailbox, and does
123 it safely.
124 !!BUGS
125
126
127 None known.
128 !!SEE ALSO
129
130
131 lockfile_create(3), maillock(3)
132 !!AUTHOR
133
134
135 Miquel van Smoorenburg, miquels@cistron.nl
136 ----
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