Skip to Content
Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition
book

Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

by Ellen Siever, Stephen Spainhour, Jessica P. Hekman, Stephen Figgins
August 2000
Intermediate to advanced
816 pages
29h 45m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Linux in a Nutshell, Third Edition

Name

lockfile

Synopsis

lockfile [options] filenames

Description

Create semaphore file(s), used to limit access to a file. When lockfile fails to create some of the specified files, it pauses for 8 seconds and retries the last one on which it failed. The command processes flags as they are encountered (i.e., a flag that is specified after a file will not affect that file).

Options

- sleeptime

Time lockfile waits before retrying after a failed creation attempt. Default is 8 seconds.

-!

Invert return value. Useful in shell scripts.

-l lockout_time

Time (in seconds) after a lockfile was last modified at which it will be removed by force. See also -s.

-ml, -mu

If the permissions on the system mail spool directory allow it or if lockfile is suitably setgid, it can lock and unlock your system mailbox with the options -ml and -mu, respectively.

-r retries

Stop trying to create files after retries retries. The default is -1 (never stop trying). When giving up, remove all created files.

-s suspend_time

After a lockfile has been removed by force (see -l), a suspension of 16 seconds takes place by default. (This is intended to prevent the inadvertent immediate removal of any lockfile newly created by another program.) Use -s to change the default 16 seconds.

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Linux in a Nutshell, 6th Edition

Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, Robert Love, Arnold Robbins
Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Linux in a Nutshell, Fourth Edition

Ellen Siever, Stephen Figgins, Aaron Weber
Running Linux, 5th Edition

Running Linux, 5th Edition

Matthias Kalle Dalheimer, Matt Welsh
Linux in Action

Linux in Action

David Clinton

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596000251Catalog PageErrata