
Introduction
------------

File-Lockf is a wrapper around the lockf system call. Perl supports the
flock system call natively, but that does not acquire network locks. Perl
also supports the fcntl system call, but that is somewhat ugly to
use. There are other locking modules available for Perl, but none of them
provided what I wanted -- a simple, clean interface to the lockf system
call, without any bells or whistles getting in the way.


Installation
------------

To compile and install File-Lockf, simply run the following commands:

     perl Makefile.PL
     make
     make install


File-Lockf has only been tested under Solaris 2.5. It is possible that it
will not compile as-is under other operating systems. If you can't get
File-Lockf to compile, please contact me and I'll gladly help you figure
out what changes are needed for your platform, and merge them into the
distribution.

The File-Lockf module contains usage instructions, which can be viewed
after installation by typing either "man File::lockf" or "perldoc
File::lockf".


Changes
-------

0.20 - Added simple OO wrapper class around locking functionality,
       including a new method to iteratively attempt to acquire a
       lock.

0.15 - First publicly released version.


Feedback/Availability
---------------------

Please report any bugs or feature requests to <henson@acm.org>.


The latest version of File-Lockf is currently available on CPAN, or
via the URL:

http://www.intranet.csupomona.edu/~henson/www/projects/File-Lockf/
