Avoiding problem of overwriting files which are in use

Posted by zaf on Stack Overflow See other posts from Stack Overflow or by zaf
Published on 2010-04-06T10:03:19Z Indexed on 2010/04/09 9:03 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 310

Filed under:

language-agnostic

|

filesystems

|

processes

|

webserver

|

integrity

For example on a high traffic web server.

To reduce problems when switching a file I usually rename the old file out and then rename in the new file.

I was told some time ago that renaming a file does not change the 'inode data' so that processes reading the file can keep doing so without glitches. And, of course, rather than copying in the new file it is faster and safer to rename a temp copy.

Is this still best practice and if not what do you do?

© Stack Overflow or respective owner

Related posts about language-agnostic

Are there any language agnostic unit testing frameworks?

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
I have always been skeptical of rewriting working code - porting code is no exception to this. However, with the advent of TDD and automated testing it is much more reasonable to rewrite and refactor code. Does anyone know if there is a TDD tool that can be used for porting old code? Ideally you… >>> More
Language Agnostic Basic Programming Question

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
This is very basic question from programming point of view but as I am in learning phase, I thought I would better ask this question rather than having a misunderstanding or narrow knowledge about the topic. So do excuse me if somehow I mess it up. Question: Let's say I have class A,B,C and D… >>> More
Language-agnostic term for typed things that need memory

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Is there an accepted general term that subsumes the concepts of variables, class instances and arrays? Basically "any typed thing that needs memory". In C++, such a thing is called an object, but I'm looking for a more language-agnostic term. § 1.8 The C++ object model 1 The constructs in… >>> More
Deprecated Methods in Code Base

as seen on Programmers - Search for 'Programmers'
A lot of the code I've been working on recently, both professionally (read: at work) and in other spheres (read: at home, for friends/family/etc, or NOT FOR WORK), has been worked on, redesigned and re-implemented several times - where possible/required. This has been in an effort to make things smaller… >>> More
Coding Competition, language agnostic guidelines?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
Hi there: I might be doing a coding competition soon, I was wondering if anyone made one and what where the guidelines/ process. I'd like to make the competition appealing to all devs, and I m trying to come up with ideas as to how. the scenario is: There is an event running and we(of the coding… >>> More

Related posts about filesystems

Question regarding filesystems true or false?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Hello all, though I'm familiar with stackoverflow , and loving it , i've actually got a couple of questions myself about something other then programming. Here are my question Is it true that in FAT filesystems the maximum number of files per filesystem equals the number of entries in the FAT table… >>> More
Filesystems for webserver with SATA and Solid State disk,

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
We have just ordered a new webserver with 120 Gb solid state disk and a SATA disk. I am trying to plan ahead what sort of filesystem to use. This system will be running Linux, Apache/Tomcat to host java services. The main service is a system where people can upload reasonably large files (in the… >>> More
To see virtual filesystems in Ubuntu

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
How can you see the virtual filesystems at root? They should be /proc and /dev. >>> More
How do filesystems handle concurrent read/write?

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
User A asks the system to read file foo and at the same time user B wants to save his or her data onto the same file. How is this situation handled on the filesystem level? >>> More
Strange ZFS hidden filesystem problem

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Half of my ZFS filesystems are hidden in ZFS-fuse. Here's my story: So, I love ZFS. I used it for about six months on FreeBSD, but due to it crashing the kernel during heavy inter-filesystem IO load, I tried switching to Solaris 5.10. That was good, but when I attempted to do an import of my Version… >>> More