Creating a lock

[Glen Lee Edwards <GLEdwards uswest net>]

I'm trying to create a lock in a Perl script using flock().  I can't get
it to work, so I need some info on how Linux handles flock (don't send me
to man - been there, done that, it was a wasted read).

We're trying to lock a file "hitcounter" before opening it by creating a
file "hitcounter.lock".  The Perl experts are saying that we can then lock
hitcounter.lock, which will automitically lock hitcounter:

open S, ">hitcounter.lock" || die $!;
flock S, LOCK_EX;
open F, ">hitcounter" || die $!;

In spite of what the experts say the preceding doesn't work (I spent
several hours this evening trying it).  Is there some way of telling Linux
to lock <file> with <file.lock>?

flock hitcounter LOCK_EX hitcounter.lock

???

Glen

"Freedom includes the rights of the citizens to make their own decisions
based on the information at hand and to act on those decisions."
- Jeff Van Hal