HP OpenVMS Systems

INSTALL, UNLOCK, and FLK errors?

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The Question is:

 
A batch job is attempting to replace an image derived from a Fortran program
 with an updated version of the program.  When using DELETE from within INSTALL
 to remove the origial file an error message - "... file locked by another
 user"  is produced. When
using UNLOCK a message is returned indicating that the file is not locked.
 Subsequent attempts to re-run the job return the same error. This job has
 worked fine in the past. Using the VMS DELETE command on the file produces the
 same error.
 
Any ideas?
 
Regards
Will
 
 

The Answer is :

 
  The DCL UNLOCK verb is rather confusing, and is only relevent to the
  ACP-QIO deaccess locking support.  This support is typically only
  used with older applications, or applications that wish to maintain
  their own consistency without the use of the OpenVMS lock manager
  and RMS.  Files that are locked using RMS and the OpenVMS distributed
  lock manager are not affected by nor particularly relevent to the DCL
  UNLOCK and SET FILE/UNLOCK verbs.
 
  Put another way, if the particular error message reported is FILELOCKED,
  then the UNLOCK and SET FILE/UNLOCK are relevent and useful.  If the
  error message is FLK (as it appears to be -- please don't abbreviate
  error messages), then the DCL commands UNLOCK and SET FILE/UNLOCK are
  not relevent and are not useful.
 
  nb: SET FILE/UNLOCK is not currently available on OpenVMS Alpha.
 
  Assuming this is the FLK error, then the available AMDS and SDA tools
  can be used to track down the lock holder.  Short of a system reboot,
  the identification of the current lock holder is a necessary step in
  the process of releasing the particular file lock involved here.
 
  The OpenVMS Wizard would also recommend the use of the current INSTALL
  command syntax, and not the (very old) foreign-command syntax used for
  INSTALL.
 

  

     

     
answer written or last revised on ( 31-JUL-2000 )
     
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