mrcoady wrote:
>
> Every now and then Netscape warns me of a lock file. However, it returns
> periodically.
> Can anyone tell me what I'n doing to that creates this lock file?
>
<snip>
netscape creates a file called lock in the .netscape-folder in your home
dir. This is to prevent multiple instaces of netscape to mess up the
bookmark and history files (and probably others) with concurrent write
accesses. normally, when you start your second netscape, you are not
able to edit the bookmarks and sites you visit are not put into the
history (on disk). That is normal.
However, if the instance of netscape that created the lock file in the
first place crashes so badly that does not make it to the point of
removing the lock file, it stays there. Next time you start netscape, it
detects the lock file and if the lock file indicates that the owning
netscape instance runs on the same machine, then it verifies this and if
the lock is stale detects this and removes it. However, if you are
working in a distributed environment, i.e., you can log into multiple
machines and find your home dir there (NFS mounted or so), and the
lock-holding netscape crashed on another machine, the current netscape
instance cannot check whether the lock file is stale or not and so
assumes it isn't. If you are sure it is, just exit netscape, rm
.netscape/lock and start it again.
Marc
--
Marc Mutz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://marc.mutz.com/Encryption-HOWTO/
University of Bielefeld, Dep. of Mathematics / Dep. of Physics
PGP-keyID's: 0xd46ce9ab (RSA), 0x7ae55b9e (DSS/DH)
