flock man page on OpenMandriva
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FLOCK(1) User Commands FLOCK(1)
NAME
flock - manage locks from shell scripts
SYNOPSIS
flock [options] <file|directory> <command> [command args]
flock [options] <file|directory> -c <command>
flock [options] <file descriptor number>
DESCRIPTION
This utility manages flock(2) locks from within shell scripts or the
command line.
The first and second forms wrap the lock around the executing a com‐
mand, in a manner similar to su(1) or newgrp(1). It locks a specified
file or directory, which is created (assuming appropriate permissions),
if it does not already exist. By default, if the lock cannot be imme‐
diately acquired, flock waits until the lock is available.
The third form uses open file by file descriptor number. See examples
how that can be used.
OPTIONS
-s, --shared
Obtain a shared lock, sometimes called a read lock.
-x, -e, --exclusive
Obtain an exclusive lock, sometimes called a write lock. This
is the default.
-u, --unlock
Drop a lock. This is usually not required, since a lock is
automatically dropped when the file is closed. However, it may
be required in special cases, for example if the enclosed com‐
mand group may have forked a background process which should not
be holding the lock.
-n, --nb, --nonblock
Fail rather than wait if the lock cannot be immediately
acquired. See the -E option for the exit code used.
-w, --wait, --timeout seconds
Fail if the lock cannot be acquired within seconds. Decimal
fractional values are allowed. See the -E option for the exit
code used.
-o, --close
Close the file descriptor on which the lock is held before exe‐
cuting command . This is useful if command spawns a child
process which should not be holding the lock.
-E, --conflict-exit-code number
The exit code used when the -n option is in use, and the con‐
flicting lock exists, or the -w option is in use, and the time‐
out is reached. The default value is 1.
-c, --command command
Pass a single command, without arguments, to the shell with -c.
-h, --help
Print a help message.
-V, --version
Show version number and exit.
EXAMPLES
shell1> flock /tmp -c cat
shell2> flock -w .007 /tmp -c echo; /bin/echo $?
Set exclusive lock to directory /tmp and the second command will
fail.
shell1> flock -s /tmp -c cat
shell2> flock -s -w .007 /tmp -c echo; /bin/echo $?
Set shared lock to directory /tmp and the second command will
not fail. Notice that attempting to get exclusive lock with
second command would fail.
shell> flock -x local-lock-file echo 'a b c'
Grab the exclusive lock "local-lock-file" before running echo
with 'a b c'.
(
flock -n 9 || exit 1
# ... commands executed under lock ...
) 9>/var/lock/mylockfile
The form is convenient inside shell scripts. The mode used to
open the file doesn't matter to flock; using > or >> allows the
lockfile to be created if it does not already exist, however,
write permission is required. Using < requires that the file
already exists but only read permission is required.
[ "${FLOCKER}" != "$0" ] && exec env FLOCKER="$0" flock -en "$0" "$0"
"$@" || :
This is useful boilerplate code for shell scripts. Put it at
the top of the shell script you want to lock and it'll automati‐
cally lock itself on the first run. If the env var $FLOCKER is
not set to the shell script that is being run, then execute
flock and grab an exclusive non-blocking lock (using the script
itself as the lock file) before re-execing itself with the right
arguments. It also sets the FLOCKER env var to the right value
so it doesn't run again.
EXIT STATUS
The command uses sysexits.h return values for everything else but an
options -n or -w failures which return either the value given by the -E
option, or 1 by default.
AUTHOR
H. Peter Anvin ⟨hpa@zytor.com⟩
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2003-2006 H. Peter Anvin.
This is free software; see the source for copying conditions. There is
NO warranty; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR
PURPOSE.
SEE ALSO
flock(2)
AVAILABILITY
The flock command is part of the util-linux package and is available
from Linux Kernel Archive ⟨ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-
linux/⟩.
util-linux September 2011 FLOCK(1)
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