FcAtomicLock(3)

✨ FcAtomicLock(3) ✨

okay so bestie, welcome to the FcAtomicLock page in the fontconfig section 3 of the manual 💖 this one's short and sweet and honestly kinda iconic for how much it does with so little.

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🎀 NAME 🎀

FcAtomicLock — lock a file 🔒

like, the whole personality is "lock a file". that's it. that's the gig. no cap.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <fontconfig/fontconfig.h>

FcBool FcAtomicLock (FcAtomic *atomic);

so you pull in the fontconfig header, and you call FcAtomicLock on a pointer to an FcAtomic, and it gives you back an FcBool. clean. minimal. we respect it 💅

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so what it actually does: it attempts to lock the file referenced by atomic. that's the vibe — you hand it the atomic thing, it goes "okay lemme try to lock the file this points at" ✨

now here's the part where you gotta pay attention, bestie, because the return values are lowkey the whole story:

• if the file is already locked, it returns FcFalse 🙈 like, sorry babe, somebody else got there first.
• otherwise (meaning it did lock it), it returns FcTrue — and here's the key detail — it leaves the file locked 🔥 it doesn't sneak-unlock it behind your back. the lock stays. that's yours now. main character energy fr fr.

⚠️ note that it attempts to lock and tells you which way it went via the return value — it does not say anything about waiting around or retrying. so check your FcBool, okay? don't just call it and ghost the return value, that's not the move 💀

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🌈 the cute lil sign-off 💜

this masterpiece of a manpage is from Fontconfig 2.17.0, dated 27 June 2025 🎀 so if you're reading this on some other version, go check the one that actually shipped with your system, bestie 🫶 anyway ily, go lock some files responsibly ⭐💖