On Jun 4, Nichole Bialczyk said:
>i'm curious as to how secure flock is. if the file is locked and another
>user tries to access it, does it wait or does it kick them off? also, is
>it ever possible for it to get stuck?
First, let me tell you that flock() doesn't really produce "file
locking" -- rather, it produces a "do not disturb" sign for the door of
the file's hotel room. You can barge in if you don't pay attention to the
sign. File locking is "advisory" -- you're only safe if all the parties
trying to access the file look for a lock.
Basically, here's how flocking works:
* if you ask for a shared lock, you will get it if the only other locks
on the file are shared
* if you ask for an exclusive lock, you will get it only if no other
lock on the file exists
* until you can get the lock you request, your program will hang, unless
you request a non-blocking lock, which will return (albeit, in
failure) if the lock could not be acquired
For more information, please read: perldoc -f flock
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