UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Hi,
I have a program that checks a directory for new files. A file may be placed in the directory only via FTP from another system.

The files are long, the FTP can take several minutes to complete.

my program sences that a file has arrived but can't tell if the FTP process that sent it is complete or not.

In other words, my program can't tell if the file is being written to or not.

Is there a UNIX command that I can use either in ksh or C that would tell me if a file is being used by another process?


Thanks.
ekareem

You could get a copy of lsof

This is cool
Thanks

Why not have the program look for a `trip-file` which would be created on completion of the FTP step.

OK, this sounds good - What is a 'trip-file'? Is it a file sent from source indicating the completion of FTP?

A trip-file is a file that you would generate after the FTP process has completed.

Hence, your program would look for the trip-file instead.
This would indicate that the FTP process has completed and the file/s are ready to access.

EG:
> Youg Program to look for trip-file `proc-a-ftpcomp` ...

* Start of proc-a-ftp * (Process `A` FTP)
> FTP process begins first file ...
> FTP process begins subsequent files ...
> FTP process completes and terminates FTP ...

* Creation of Trip-File *
Trip-File (`proc-a-ftpcomp`) created if the FTP process completes without error.
It does not need to contain data (unless you see a need to).

* Keep going *
Your Program then see's the existance of the trip-file and continues processing.

HTH's

This is a very good idea. Thanks.