On Sun, Nov 23, 2003 at 11:17:57AM +0100, Cordula's Web wrote: > > > A file, let's say, /path/to/a/file, is being modified by > > > an unknown process P(u) at random times. Unfortunately, > > > the name of the program ran by P(u) is unknown. > > > > Have you tried moving the file elsewhere and seeing if anyone > > complains about the absence? > > No, P(u) obviously fails silently. There's nothing recorded > by syslog, no messages on the console, and no core dumps... > > > Or writing a program that locks the file? > > That was a good idea. However, P(u) didn't seem to take a lock. > Advisory locks are just that: if P(u) doesn't lock the file, > existing locks don't matter at all. Do we have mandatory locks > in FreeBSD?
Not a lock as such, but:
# chflags schg /path/to/a/file
should achieve the effect you desire. Although this will cause any
write on the file to just fail, rather than causing P(u) to block
waiting for a lock. You could try replacing /path/to/a/file with a
fifo (see mkfifo(1)), and maybe hang another process on the other end
of the fifo which can run ps(1) or fstat(1) when a write is detected.
Cheers,
Matthew
--
Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 26 The Paddocks
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