proper-lockfile
An inter-process and inter-machine lockfile utility that works on a local or network file system.
Installation
$ npm install proper-lockfile
Design
There are various ways to achieve file locking.
This library utilizes the mkdir
strategy which works atomically on any kind of file system, even network based ones.
The lockfile path is based on the file path you are trying to lock by suffixing it with .lock
.
When a lock is successfully acquired, the lockfile's mtime
(modified time) is periodically updated to prevent staleness. This allows to effectively check if a lock is stale by checking its mtime
against a stale threshold. If the update of the mtime fails several times, the lock might be compromised. The mtime
is supported in almost every filesystem
.
Comparison
This library is similar to lockfile but the later has some drawbacks:
- It relies on
open
with O_EXCL
flag which has problems in network file systems. proper-lockfile
uses mkdir
which doesn't have this issue.
O_EXCL is broken on NFS file systems; programs which rely on it for performing locking tasks will contain a race condition.
-
The lockfile staleness check is done via ctime
(creation time) which is unsuitable for long running processes. proper-lockfile
constantly updates lockfiles mtime
to do proper staleness check.
-
It does not check if the lockfile was compromised which can led to undesirable situations. proper-lockfile
checks the lockfile when updating the mtime
.
Compromised
proper-lockfile
does not detect cases in which:
- A
lockfile
is manually removed and someone else acquires the lock right after - Different
stale
/update
values are being used for the same file, possibly causing two locks to be acquired on the same file
proper-lockfile
detects cases in which:
- Updates to the
lockfile
fail - Updates take longer than expected, possibly causing the lock to became stale for a certain amount of time
As you see, the first two are a consequence of bad usage. Technically, it was possible to detect the first two but it would introduce complexity and eventual race conditions.
Usage
.lock(file, [options], [compromised], callback)
Tries to acquire a lock on file
.
If the lock succeeds, a release
function is provided that should be called when you want to release the lock.
If the lock gets compromised, the compromised
function will be called. The default compromised
function is a simple throw err
which will probably cause the process to die. Specify it to handle the way you desire.
Available options:
stale
: Duration in milliseconds in which the lock is considered stale, defaults to 10000
(minimum value is 5000
)update
: The interval in milliseconds in which the lockfile's mtime
will be updated, defaults to stale/2
(minimum value is 1000
, maximum value is stale/2
)retries
: The number of retries or a retry options object, defaults to 0
realpath
: Resolve symlinks using realpath, defaults to true
(note that if true
, the file
must exist previously)fs
: A custom fs to use, defaults to graceful-fs
const lockfile = require('proper-lockfile');
lockfile.lock('some/file', (err, release) => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
release();
});
.unlock(file, [options], [callback])
Releases a previously acquired lock on file
.
Whenever possible you should use the release
function instead (as exemplified above). Still there are cases in which its hard to keep a reference to it around code. In those cases unlock()
might be handy.
The callback
is optional because even if the removal of the lock failed, the lockfile's mtime
will no longer be updated causing it to eventually stale.
Available options:
realpath
: Resolve symlinks using realpath, defaults to true
(note that if true
, the file
must exist previously)fs
: A custom fs to use, defaults to graceful-fs
const lockfile = require('proper-lockfile');
lockfile.lock('some/file', (err) => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
lockfile.unlock('some/file');
});
.check(file, [options], callback)
Check if the file is locked and its lockfile is not stale. Callback is called with callback(error, isLocked).
Available options:
stale
: Duration in milliseconds in which the lock is considered stale, defaults to 10000
(minimum value is 5000
)realpath
: Resolve symlinks using realpath, defaults to true
(note that if true
, the file
must exist previously)fs
: A custom fs to use, defaults to graceful-fs
const lockfile = require('proper-lockfile');
lockfile.check('some/file', (err, isLocked) => {
if (err) {
throw err;
}
});
.lockSync(file, [options], [compromised])
Sync version of .lock()
.
Returns the release
function or throws on error.
.unlockSync(file, [options])
Sync version of .unlock()
.
Throws on error.
.checkSync(file, [options])
Sync version of .check()
.
Returns a boolean or throws on error.
Graceful exit
proper-lockfile
automatically remove locks if the process exists. Though, SIGINT
and SIGTERM
signals
are handled differently by nodejs
in the sense that they do not fire a exit
event on the process
.
To avoid this common issue that CLI
developers have, please do the following:
process
.once('SIGINT', () => process.exit(1))
.once('SIGTERM', () => process.exit(1));
Tests
$ npm test
$ npm test-cov
to get coverage report
The test suite is very extensive. There's even a stress test to guarantee exclusiveness of locks.
License
Released under the MIT License.