PT>>> just another example of unixish dirty file system hacks, like doing
 PT>>> unlink() on an open file :)

 RC>    You can do the same thing under OS/2 by opening the file in deny
 RC> read/write mode.
 TS> This is not just quite the same.

 RC>    I believe that this is due to UNIX lacking 
 RC> effective file locking.  So
 RC> you can't stop a process from deleting a file 
 RC> while another process is
 RC> using it.  So you just allow the process with the 
 RC> open file to keep using
 RC> it - the deletion process will complete when there 
 RC> are no open handles to
 RC> the file.

 TS> This is false in this general speaking. Of course there 
 TS> are enough implementations whose API offers nice 
 TS> mechanisms like semaphores, shared memory, file locking etc.

    True.  There are many implementations of UNIX that support these
features, and many UNIX applications that rely on them not being used.  I
should have been more clear when I wrote the above paragraph that I was
referring to the design decisions that resulted in UNIX allowing files to
be unlinked while in use.  The continued existance of that
"feature" is for compatibility.


   cya


--- Maximus/2 2.02