Subject: Re: tail -f <file name> locks <file name>
From: Earnie Boyd <[email-masked]>
To: Eugene Kanter <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 30 Apr 1999 09:13:20 -0700 (PDT)

--- Eugene Kanter <[email-masked]> wrote:
> Earnie Boyd wrote:
> > 
> > --- Eugene Kanter <[email-masked]> wrote:
> > --8<--
> > > Here is an example:
> > >
> > > bash window 1:                     bash window 2:
> > > bash-2.02$ touch  mappfile.out
> > > bash-2.02$ tail -f  mappfile.out   bash $ cat > mappfile.out
> > > line1                              line1
> > > line2                              line2
> > >                                    ^C
> > >                                    bash $ rm mappfile.out
> > >                                    bash $ ls mappfile.out
> > >                                    ls: mappfile.out: No such file or
> > > directory
> > >                                    bash $ cat > mappfile.out
> > >                                    bash: mappfile.out: Permission denied
> > >
> > > Is this enough for you to reproduce it?
> > 
> > The rm of mappfile.out in the bash 2 window has not actually removed it yet
> as
> > it is still open in the bash 1 window.  Cygwin has marked it in a table to
> be
> > removed when it gets closed but it's really not gone yet.  You then try to
> > create the file and the filesystem complains that it can't get rid of
> > mappfile.out because another process has it open so you get the "Permission
> > denied" error.  This is a feature of the MS OSes.
> 
> Is there a way to overcome this "feature of the MS OSes"?

Uh, not unless you become the owner of MS. ;^)

> 
> Is there any other "tail" which does not cause this error? 
> 

Modify the source so that the file is closed when it reaches the end of file. 
Have win32 notify you when the file changes then reopen the file and seek to
the point you were and continue.  If the file is deleted then reset the
position pointers.

===
"Earnie Boyd" <mailto:[email-masked]>
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