tags:

views:

598

answers:

4

After wrestling with PHP source for a half an hour, I gave up. :P The question is - what system call does the PHP flock() function call boil down to on a Gentoo Linux system? I'm having some issues with it (like block-for-30-seconds-in-every-one-of-20-loop-iterations kind of issues) and I would like to know why that is so.

A: 

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're asking, PHP's flock() is a call to the Unix system function flock() on Gentoo. They have identical semantics.

John Feminella
Semantics - yes. But does it really call flock()?
Vilx-
I can't prove it because I'm not running a copy of PHP right now, but I believe so, yes. Why not try it out yourself with strace?
John Feminella
I have only FTP access to the server.
Vilx-
Why not just check the PHP source code?
R. Bemrose
A: 

Are you using it on a networked or mounted drive? I wouldn't be surprised if what you are experiencing is deadlock, and some of the comments in the documentation talk about that.

The documentation for flock.

altCognito
Read carefully - Gentoo Linux here. But the full setup is a bit complicated so I just want to know what it calls underneath, so that I can put the full picture together myself.
Vilx-
And no, it's not a deadlock, that I'm sure of. But there are other things I'm suspecting.
Vilx-
Ahh, I just found out that the file is on an NFS mount. And the host box is also trying to flock() it (load balanced webservers, you see).
Vilx-
+1  A: 

// example: $stream = fopen(FILE, 'rb') or die('???');
$md = stream_get_meta_data($stream);
echo $md['wrapper_type'];
flock($stream);
if this prints plainfile then the call to the php function flock() is handled by php_stdiop_set_option(...) which calls flock(). Depending on whether PHP was compiled with HAVE_FLOCK or not this may be the system call flock() or a function defined in flock_compat.c which utilizes fcntl(). On my gentoo system PHP was compiled with HAVE_FLOCK.

main/streams/plain_wrapper.c @ static int php_stdiop_set_option(...):

    case PHP_STREAM_OPTION_LOCKING:
      if (fd == -1) {
       return -1;
      }

      if ((zend_uintptr_t) ptrparam == PHP_STREAM_LOCK_SUPPORTED) {
       return 0;
      }

      if (!flock(fd, value)) {
       data->lock_flag = value;
       return 0;
      } else {
       return -1;
      }
      break;
VolkerK
+1  A: 

http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html

/etc/standard/flock_compat.c [line 66]    
ret = fcntl(fd, operation & LOCK_NB ? F_SETLK : F_SETLKW, &flck);
simplemotives
If this function is called or not depends on the compile time define HAVE_FLOCK
VolkerK