Hi--

We are in a production environment with one WinXP box and several linux boxes.

We have discovered that the WinXP and linux boxes seem to respect each other's file locks, but that the linux boxes do not respect each other's locks. In other words, box 1 can have a file open, and at the same time box 2 can open it and edit and save the file.

We have smb.conf set with level2 oplocks yes, kernel oplocks no, and oplocks no. When we first noticed the problem the last two were set to yes. The change has made the locks work sometimes, but not reliably.

Are there other things besides the oplocks and the smb.conf file which can affect file locking? How would you trouble shoot this?

Thanks!

Unix file system locks are specified by the program itself; if the program does not create or open a file with strict access, other processes can open the file as well.

Another form of locking is cooperative, but this requires all programs to cooperate in the locking protocol.

Mr. C.--

Thanks for your help.

So are you saying that I need to look into OpenOffice.org for the locking? That might actually explain why some versions of OOo can open a file while others have it open, and other versions cannot....

Thanks!

I don't know what protocols OOo supports, but I can imagine it has an open-for-write exclusive lock feature.

The key point to remember, programs must be written to support locking. Such a program in Unix/Linux is vipw which opens the /etc/passwd file exclusively, where as standard vi/vim would not. Likewise for visudo to the /etc/sudoers file. It is a long established tradition to use these utilities when there are multiple sys-admins who could be opening the same file at the same time.