[Mailman-Developers] New LockFile.py

[Mats Wichmann]

At 05:39 PM 05/02/2000 -0700, J C Lawrence wrote:
>On Mon, 1 May 2000 13:43:04 -0400 (EDT) 
>Barry Warsaw <bwarsaw@python.org> wrote:
>
>> The one questionable aspect of the new LockFile.py is that it uses
>> the mtime of the file as the lock's lifetime.  This works great
>> for avoiding race conditions but means that Mailman is setting
>> mtime's of the files to some time in the future.  Is anybody aware
>> of OSes where this will be a problem?  Linux and Solaris both seem
>> to stay happy.
>
>Aside: Tripwire, Aide, and other filesystem based attack sensors
>will tend to have fits over this. 

I have to admit to a vague discomfort over the technique, but
I don't buy any of the arguments presented here against it.

So what if fsck has a hairball (which I don't expect)?  It's
checking a transient file which is no longer in use, since
the file system has been dismounted and thus the process
using it must no longer be using it (probably the filesystem
is dismounted due to a crash and we've rebooted).

Tripwire?  Shouldn't be checking transient lockfiles anyway.

Mats