.\" $NetBSD: flock.2,v 1.5 1995/02/27 12:32:32 cgd Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)flock.2 8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93 .\" .Dd December 11, 1993 .Dt FLOCK 2 .Os BSD 4.2 .Sh NAME .Nm flock .Nd "apply or remove an advisory lock on an open file" .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include <sys/file.h> .Fd #define LOCK_SH 1 /* shared lock */ .Fd #define LOCK_EX 2 /* exclusive lock */ .Fd #define LOCK_NB 4 /* don't block when locking */ .Fd #define LOCK_UN 8 /* unlock */ .Ft int .Fn flock "int fd" "int operation" .Sh DESCRIPTION .Fn Flock applies or removes an .Em advisory lock on the file associated with the file descriptor .Fa fd . A lock is applied by specifying an .Fa operation parameter that is one of .Dv LOCK_SH or .Dv LOCK_EX with the optional addition of .Dv LOCK_NB . To unlock an existing lock .Dv operation should be .Dv LOCK_UN . .Pp Advisory locks allow cooperating processes to perform consistent operations on files, but do not guarantee consistency (i.e., processes may still access files without using advisory locks possibly resulting in inconsistencies). .Pp The locking mechanism allows two types of locks: .Em shared locks and .Em 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 exclusive, locks allowed simultaneously on a file. .Pp A shared lock may be .Em upgraded to an exclusive lock, and vice versa, simply by specifying the appropriate lock type; this results in the previous lock being released and the new lock applied (possibly after other processes have gained and released the lock). .Pp Requesting a lock on an object that is already locked normally causes the caller to be blocked until the lock may be acquired. If .Dv LOCK_NB is included in .Fa operation , then this will not happen; instead the call will fail and the error .Er EWOULDBLOCK will be returned. .Sh NOTES Locks are on files, not file descriptors. That is, file descriptors duplicated through .Xr dup 2 or .Xr 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. .Pp Processes blocked awaiting a lock may be awakened by signals. .Sh RETURN VALUES Zero is returned if the operation was successful; on an error a -1 is returned and an error code is left in the global location .Va errno . .Sh ERRORS The .Fn flock call fails if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EWOULDBLOCK The file is locked and the .Dv LOCK_NB option was specified. .It Bq Er EBADF The argument .Fa fd is an invalid descriptor. .It Bq Er EINVAL The argument .Fa fd refers to an object other than a file. .It Bq Er ENOTSUP The referenced descriptor is not of the correct type. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr close 2 , .Xr dup 2 , .Xr execve 2 , .Xr fork 2 , .Xr open 2 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn flock function call appeared in .Bx 4.2 .