mvmf: lockset man page

LOCKSET(1)                  General Commands Manual                  LOCKSET(1)

NAME
       lockset - Establish file locks

SYNOPSIS
       lockset [-e] [-v] [-x] filename [locks]

DESCRIPTION
       In  its  normal  mode, lockset establishes locks on a file and then sits
       and does nothing.  The intent is that you can then test some other util-
       ity to see that it properly honors the locks that you set.

       You may invoke lockset with the -v flag to get a quick summary of how to
       use the program and of what lock  types  are  available.   Otherwise,  a
       filename  must  be  given as the first argument.  This file is opened in
       read/write mode but no changes are made to the file.   After  the  file-
       name,  give a list of zero or more lock types.  All of the locks are at-
       tempted, in the order given.  Once this is complete, lockset  waits  for
       you to terminate the program.  If you do this with the interrupt charac-
       ter (or signal), an orderly cleanup is done.

       When invoked with the -e flag, lockset exits immediately after acquiring
       its  lock  without  cleaning up locks. In this mode, it will exit with a
       zero status when the lock was acquired, and non-zero status if there was
       a failure. This allows a shell script (say) to continue processing after
       acquiring a lock.  Note that this really only makes sense with  dotlock-
       ing  (so  you  might  want to be explicit about the lock type when using
       this mode) and that as always with dotlocking,  the  program  must  have
       read  access  to the named file as well as creation access for the .lock
       file.

       The -x flag will increase a verbosity level.

       The types of locks include dotlock, which gains access to the file via a
       filename.lock file (with filename being the name of the file you  give);
       fcntl,  the  fcntl()  system  call;  flock, the flock() system call; and
       lockf the lockf() library function.

       NB: not all locking types may be available.  Use the -v flag to find out
       what you can use.  If you specify a lock type that is either unknown  or
       unavailable, it is silently ignored.

       lockset  makes  use of mvmf's lockset functions, and so it also uses li-
       brary code from the mml library.  This means it hauls in a bunch of code
       for what should probably be a program of a page or two of  source  code.
       However,  one side goal of this utility is to use the mvmf locking code,
       so there you have it.

SEE ALSO
       http://www.mvmf.org/ -- the mvmf web site.

CREDITS TO
       M. Mallett  (mem@mvmf.org)    2007,2024-2025

BUGS
       You tell me..

                                                                     LOCKSET(1)