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FLOCK(2)		    BSD Programmer's Manual		      FLOCK(2)

NAME
     flock - apply or remove an advisory lock on an open file

SYNOPSIS
     #include <fcntl.h>

     int
     flock(int fd, int operation);

DESCRIPTION
     Flock() applies or removes an advisory lock on the file associated with
     the file descriptor fd. The operation parameter is created from the or'd
     operation bit masks defined in <fcntl.h>:

	   #define LOCK_SH 0x01	   /* shared file lock */
	   #define LOCK_EX 0x02	   /* exclusive file lock */
	   #define LOCK_NB 0x04	   /* don't block when locking */
	   #define LOCK_UN 0x08	   /* unlock file */

     A lock is applied by specifying either LOCK_SH or LOCK_EX with the op-
     tional inclusion of LOCK_NB. To unlock an existing lock, operation should
     be LOCK_UN.

     Advisory locks allow cooperating processes to perform consistent opera-
     tions on files, but do not guarantee consistency (i.e., processes may
     still access files without using advisory locks possibly resulting in in-
     consistencies).

     The locking mechanism allows two types of locks: shared locks and
     exclusive locks.  At any time multiple shared locks may be applied to a
     file, but at no time are multiple exclusive, or both shared and exclu-
     sive, locks allowed simultaneously on a file.

     A shared lock may be upgraded to an exclusive lock, and vice versa, sim-
     ply by specifying the appropriate lock type; this results in the previous
     lock being released and the new lock applied (possibly after other pro-
     cesses have gained and released the lock).

     Requesting a lock on an object that is already locked normally causes the
     caller to be blocked until the lock may be acquired.  If LOCK_NB is in-
     cluded in operation, then this will not happen; instead the call will
     fail and the error EWOULDBLOCK will be returned.

NOTES
     Locks are on files, not file descriptors.	That is, file descriptors du-
     plicated through dup(2) or fork(2) do not result in multiple instances of
     a lock, but rather multiple references to a single lock.  If a process
     holding a lock on a file forks and the child explicitly unlocks the file,
     the parent will lose its lock.

     Processes blocked awaiting a lock may be awakened by signals.

RETURN VALUES
     Zero is returned if the operation was successful; on an error a -1 is re-
     turned and an error code is left in the global location errno.

ERRORS
     The flock() call fails if:

     [EWOULDBLOCK]  The file is locked and the LOCK_NB option was specified.

     [EBADF]	    The argument fd is an invalid descriptor.

     [EINVAL]	    The argument fd refers to an object other than a file.

SEE ALSO
     open(2),  close(2),  dup(2),  execve(2),  fork(2)

HISTORY
     The flock function call appeared in 4.2BSD.

4.2 Berkeley Distribution      December 11, 1993			     2
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