I disagree that it is "huge" that flock() is missing; if you are relying on advisory (emphasis on advisory) file and record locking to implement coherence, then your architecture is likely an accident waiting to happen -- it's a highly problematic interface for many reasons. Of course, if you really need it, use fs-ext as Isaac mentioned -- NS more generally, if you need some system functionality that isn't present in core, develop an add-on and knock yourself out. It's not entirely pleasant, of course -- but don't pretend that an interface not being in core means that some bit of system functionality is somehow off limits...
Huge might be the wrong word, but I've definitely been frustrated that it's missing. Java has a standard library class that works well enough for whole-file advisory (or mandatory if you're on Windows, I suppose) locks on a local filesystem. It's eminently helpful for excluding a second process from starting with a lock that the OS will clean up for you if/when your process terminates for whatever reason.
smf(5) can get you part of the way there, but not if you're (say) writing some system bits that you need to deploy on platforms in addition to SunOS. Plus, if you can avoid depending on any not-just-pure-JS modules then you can deploy one tree onto all of your platforms without additional build steps, C++ compile/ABI issues, etc.
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I disagree that it is "huge" that flock() is missing; if you are relying on advisory (emphasis on advisory) file and record locking to implement coherence, then your architecture is likely an accident waiting to happen -- it's a highly problematic interface for many reasons. Of course, if you really need it, use fs-ext as Isaac mentioned -- NS more generally, if you need some system functionality that isn't present in core, develop an add-on and knock yourself out. It's not entirely pleasant, of course -- but don't pretend that an interface not being in core means that some bit of system functionality is somehow off limits...
Huge might be the wrong word, but I've definitely been frustrated that it's missing. Java has a standard library class that works well enough for whole-file advisory (or mandatory if you're on Windows, I suppose) locks on a local filesystem. It's eminently helpful for excluding a second process from starting with a lock that the OS will clean up for you if/when your process terminates for whatever reason.
smf(5) can get you part of the way there, but not if you're (say) writing some system bits that you need to deploy on platforms in addition to SunOS. Plus, if you can avoid depending on any not-just-pure-JS modules then you can deploy one tree onto all of your platforms without additional build steps, C++ compile/ABI issues, etc.