What Is File Locking in Unix?
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File locking is a mechanism to restrict access to a file among multiple processes. It allows only one process to access the file in a specific time, thus avoiding the interceding update problem.

How does file locking work?

File locking is a mechanism that restricts access to a computer file, or to a region of a file, by allowing only one user or process to modify or delete it in a specific time and to prevent reading of the file while it’s being modified or deleted.

What is the need of file locking?

File locking is a data management feature that restricts other users from changing a specific file. This allows only one user or process access to this file at any given time. This is to prevent the problem of interceding updates on the same files.

James H. Sterling

James H. Sterling

Environmental Science & Climate Journalist

James Sterling reports on renewable energy developments, climate policy, ecological conservation, and green tech innovations around the globe.

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