[26908] in Athena Bugs
Re: 9.5.27 linux: firefox lockfile problems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (John Hawkinson)
Thu Jul 27 13:03:40 2006
Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2006 13:03:23 -0400
From: John Hawkinson <jhawk@mit.edu>
To: Robert Basch <rbasch@mit.edu>
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Robert Basch <rbasch@MIT.EDU> wrote on Thu, 27 Jul 2006
at 11:01:43 -0400 in <5825E062-45F1-4779-BCD6-8C613E20E068@mit.edu>:
> This might be a different problem -- the lock symlink appears to
> be old.
OK. I will be more diligent in checking the script's output in
future cases. Sorry for the shortcut here.
> In this case, it looks like firefox checks the IP address in the
> symlink against the current machine's address, and considers the
> profile locked when the addresses do not match. This particular
> problem should not reoccur once the old (pre-1.5.0) symlink is
> removed, though -- the new version puts a leading '+' in the
> symlink's PID value, which denotes that the fcntl() lock has been
> acquired -- unless the user is switching between 9.4.27 and
> pre-9.4.27 machines.
While it won't recurr for this user, I expect it may very well
occur for many other users, esp. those with extant lockfiles
who have been gone for the summer. I expect many will just
give up and swear off Athena, etc., and not bother to ask for help,
if the wrapper is not changed to address this problem :(
[ Many people seem to be very frustrated with Athena and in many
cases, things like this are the "last straw." ]
So, if feasable, I would recommend revising the script to properly
handle this situation.
The first user, by the way, Samira, mentioned that she indeed saw
the problem again, but wasn't in a position to reproduce it when I saw
her.
--jhawk
