Re: Creating lock file for compilers that don't support -c -o

[Albert Chin]

On Tue, Aug 26, 2003 at 07:13:34AM -0400, Earnie Boyd wrote:
> Paul Jarc wrote:
> >Bob Friesenhahn <address@hidden> wrote:
> >
> >>Creating a symbolic link requires testing for an existing file, and
> >>then (if the file does not exist) creating a new file, and a
> >>directory entry to reference it.  This requires multiple network
> >>transactions with an opportunity for race-conditions.
> >
> >
> >open() with O_CREAT|O_EXCL also creates a new file, yet that does not
> >subject it to race conditions.  symlink() has equivalent semantics to
> >O_CREAT|O_EXCL.  It may be that some network filesystems fail to
> >preserve the atomicity; I wouldn't know.  But at least for local
> >filesystems, I don't see any problems with symlinks.
> >
> 
> Problem with symlinks, and hardlinks for that matter, is portability. 
> Not all systems support them.

We only need to worry about it on systems without -c -o support.

-- 
albert chin (address@hidden)