+++ /dev/null
-.\" -*-nroff-*-
-.TH lock 3 "23 May 1999" "Straylight/Edgeware" "mLib utilities library"
-.SH NAME
-lock \- oversimplified file locking interface
-.\" @lock_file
-.SH SYNOPSIS
-.nf
-.B "#include <mLib/lock.h>"
-
-.BI "int lock_file(int " fd ", unsigned " how );
-.fi
-.SH DESCRIPTION
-The
-.B lock_file
-function provides an extremely simplistic interface to POSIX
-.BR fcntl (2)
-locking. It locks only entire files, not sections of files. It doesn't
-have a nonblocking `is this file locked?' function.
-.PP
-On entry,
-.I fd
-should be a file descriptor on an open file, and
-.I how
-is a constant which describes how the file is to be locked. The
-possible values of
-.I how
-are:
-.TP
-.B LOCK_EXCL
-Lock the file exclusively. Attempts to lock the file exclusively or
-nonexclusively will fail until the file is unlocked.
-.TP
-.B LOCK_NONEXCL
-Lock the file nonexclusively. Until the file is unlocked, attempts to
-lock it exclusively will fail, but other nonexclusive locks will
-succeed.
-.TP
-.B LOCK_UNLOCK
-Unlocks a locked file. Any locks afterwards can succeed.
-.PP
-The
-.B lock_file
-function will block if it can't obtain a lock immediately. It will time
-itself out after a short while (10 seconds in the current
-implementation) if the lock doesn't become available.
-.PP
-If the call succeeds,
-.B lock_file
-returns zero. On failure, \-1 is returned, and
-.B errno
-is set to an appropriate value. Most of the error returns are from
-.BR fcntl (2)
-(q.v.). If the lock operation times out,
-.B errno
-is set to
-.BR EINTR .
-.SH "SEE ALSO"
-.BR fcntl (2),
-.BR mLib (3).
-.SH AUTHOR
-Mark Wooding, <mdw@distorted.org.uk>