Windows Server 2003 provide network mutexes

Question

Hi! I want to coordinate use of common files on Windows Server 2003 from two Windows XP Workstations. Does Windows Server 2003 provide network mutexes for this purpose? Are there any libraries of C functions to access to them? I couldn’t find such functions in Visual C++ 2008.

Answer 1

As far as i am concerned mutexes lets you perform thread synchronization only between processes in same workstation. I dont think you have anything powerful enough to provide you the same over common files across a network. But who knows there maybe!

Answer 2

I am not sure about the availability of mutexes for accessing shared files. But I can think of one solution: In the WIN2K3 workstation where the files reside, you can create a service which handles the file I/O and locking operations. The XP machines can request the service to do the file I/O.

I hope experienced users here could help us in validating this option.

Thanks.