Re: What is the use of /var/lock/news

[Laura Conrad <lconrad@world.std.com>]

>>>>> "Rat" == Stainless Steel Rat <ratinox@peorth.gweep.net> writes:

    Rat> Then I suspect leafnode's NNTP server is creating the lock
    Rat> files.  They are created to prevent two or more instances of
    Rat> leafnode or especially fetchnews from being started, which
    Rat> would effectively destroy your spool.

    Rat> IOW, making the lock files "go away" is a Bad Thing(tm).

Except that in my experience with fetchnews, it does sometimes leave
the lockfiles lying around when the connection gets broken
unexpectedly.    What I have at the moment for dealing with this is
that in the /etc/ppp/ip-down.local script, which gets executed when
the ppp process ends, I remove any old lockfiles.

I believe that the latest leafnode distribution actually checks
whether the lockfile belongs to an existing process, and removes it if 
it doesn't, so my ip-down.local removal may be unnecessary now, but
I'm pretty sure it's harmless in that context.

-- 
Laura (mailto:lconrad@world.std.com , http://www.world.std.com/~lconrad/ )
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