How do I lock a file in Perl?

Question

What is the best way to create a lock on a file in Perl?

Is it best to flock on the file or to create a lock file to place a lock on and check for a lock on the lock

Answer 1

Developed off of http://metacpan.org/pod/File::FcntlLock

use Fcntl qw(:DEFAULT :flock :seek :Fcompat);
use File::FcntlLock;
sub acquire_lock {
  my $fn = shift;
  my $justPrint = shift || 0;
  confess "Too many args" if defined shift;
  confess "Not enough args" if !defined $justPrint;

  my $rv = TRUE;
  my $fh;
  sysopen($fh, $fn, O_RDWR | O_CREAT) or LOGDIE "failed to open: $fn: $!";
  $fh->autoflush(1);
  ALWAYS "acquiring lock: $fn";
  my $fs = new File::FcntlLock;
  $fs->l_type( F_WRLCK );
  $fs->l_whence( SEEK_SET );
  $fs->l_start( 0 );
  $fs->lock( $fh, F_SETLKW ) or LOGDIE  "failed to get write lock: $fn:" . $fs->error;
  my $num = <$fh> || 0;
  return ($fh, $num);
}

sub release_lock {
  my $fn = shift;
  my $fh = shift;
  my $num = shift;
  my $justPrint = shift || 0;

  seek($fh, 0, SEEK_SET) or LOGDIE "seek failed: $fn: $!";
  print $fh "$num\n" or LOGDIE "write failed: $fn: $!";
  truncate($fh, tell($fh)) or LOGDIE "truncate failed: $fn: $!";
  my $fs = new File::FcntlLock;
  $fs->l_type(F_UNLCK);
  ALWAYS "releasing lock: $fn";
  $fs->lock( $fh, F_SETLK ) or LOGDIE "unlock failed: $fn: " . $fs->error;
  close($fh) or LOGDIE "close failed: $fn: $!";
}