[Glass] protect temporary files

[Norm Green]

Hi Otto,

There is file locking protocol in GsFile under category #locking. There 
are several caveats and restrictions so be sure to read the methods 
carefully. Also note that file locking over NFS is buggy and should not 
be relied upon. If your zip files are on NFS you could create a local 
(not on NFS) 1 byte file with a known name in a known location and lock 
it when the zip file is in use.

There are other ways to do this as well as James says. For example, you 
could also use a shared counter (in class System) as your lock bit and 
use a KeyValueDictionary to map the file name to the shared counter ID.

Norm Green

On 6/2/2023 5:09 AM, Otto Behrens via Glass wrote:
> Hi,
>
> We have zipped files (references stored in GemStone with 
> MAExternalFileModel) that we use in an operation, for example to merge 
> PDF data (with PDFTk) or serve to the user via the web server, while 
> it is temporarily unzipped. The code is something like this:
>
> operation: aBlock
>   tempFile := f unzip.
>   ^ [ aBlock value: tempFile ] ensure: [ tempFile remove ]
>
> We have on occasion multiple sessions that do operations on the same 
> file, which causes a problem. We would like to protect the operation 
> with a semaphore or something like that.
>
> Is a Semaphore the way to solve this or is there a better alternative?
>
> If we use Semaphore and store it on our file object, we cannot commit 
> because we cannot persist the semaphore instVar. According to the 
> programming guide, "if you need to encapsulate objects that should not 
> be persistent, such as semaphores, within object structures that do 
> need to be persistent and shared".
>
> I am unsure how to structure this or if this is a good idea. Can 
> anyone please help?
>
> Kind regards
>
> Otto Behrens
>
> +27 82 809 2375
>
> 	FINWorks
>
>
>
>
> FINWorks <http://za.linkedin.com/in/waltherbehrens> 	www.finworks.biz 
> <http://www.finworks.biz/>
>
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