From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!vax135!ariel!orion!lime!we13!plw Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Title: Re: mutual exclusion between processes Article-I.D.: we13.359 Posted: Thu Jan 6 16:11:32 1983 Received: Fri Jan 7 03:23:32 1983 References: sdchema.349 Using 'access(LOCKFILE, 0)' also works, especially well for root because root would not be denied search permission in any directory component of the path 'LOCKFILE'.