19990223: semaphore...

>From: Maureen Ballard <address@hidden>
>Organization: UK Ag Weather Center
>Keywords: 199902231422.HAA28442

>Steve,
>
>Do you have any references you could point me to concerning semaphore
>setup? The little I have been able to read about this makes me believe
>that this is the answer to our problems. Unfortunately, our programmer
>is new to unix and doesn't know much about it and I can't seem to find
>anything on the web. If you could point in a direction I'd really
>appreciate it.
>
>Thanks!!!
>
>Maureen
>
>--
>========================================================================
>
>Maureen Moore Ballard                   address@hidden
>Staff Meteorologist                           ph:  606-257-3000ext244
>Ag. Weather Center                         fax: 606-257-5671
>243 Ag. Engineering Bldg
>Dept. of Biosystems and Ag. Engr.
>University of Kentucky
>Lexington, KY 40546-0276
>HOMEPAGE   http://wwwagwx.ca.uky.edu
>
>You don't stop laughing because you grow old;
>you grow old because you stop laughing.
>=========================================================================
>
>
>

Maureen,

Semaphores, and/or mutual exclusion is a basic computer science
operating systems topic- that would be the most likely reference.
Sometimes books teach the concept with 2 ships passing in a chanel.

To implement semaphores in scripts, you want to employ a lock-out system 
where only one script is allowed to run at a time. A key is used, so that
only one script at a time can have access. When that script is finished,
it removes the lock and the next script to get the key runs.
The main thing to remember is: if your script dies, then the old
lock won't be removed- generally I have a stuck script email me
if its waiting to long.

Here is a basic lock-out routine for a csh. If all your scripts
operate in a single directory and have this preample, you
can keep execution to 1 at a time.

#!/bin/csh -f

# use process ID to get a unique lock name, touch creates the lock file
# in the directory.
set MYLOCK=".lock.$$"
touch $MYLOCK

# wait until it is my turn, be sure to sleep before each test
@ COUNT = 0
set TURN=0
while ($TURN == 0)
   sleep 5
   # find the first lock
   set LOCK=`ls -rt .lock.* | head -1`

   if($LOCK == $MYLOCK) set TURN=1
   @ COUNT = $COUNT + 1

   # usually employ some way to notify the user if a job is waiting
   # too long. Exiting prevents too many jobs from backing up.
   if($COUNT > 120) then
      echo "Check on semaphores" | mailx -s "semaphore" address@hidden
      remove $MYLOCK
      exit
   endif

end 

# if reached here, its our turn. Remember to remove lock at end

# do some processing here

# simulate some process running
echo job $$ is running
sleep 10

# last thing to do is remove our lock

rm -f $MYLOCK

exit



You can test the above script (eg test.csh) with something like:

at the csh prompt:
% @ COUNT = 1
% while ($COUNT < 11)
? test.csh &
? @ COUNT = $COUNT + 1
? sleep 1
end


The above test will start up and background 10 instances of the
test.csh script. As each one gets its turn, it will echo a like
similar to "job 1004064 is running".

Steve Chiswell