SALVAGE.LOCK(5)

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version 1.8.16.1 · 10 versions
, in ubuntu stonking

💖 SALVAGE.LOCK(5) 💖

ok so bestie, we're in the AFS File Reference section, and this page is all about salvage.lock. yes it's a whole man page about one file. she's small but she's powerful, okay?? 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

salvage.lock — the little file that stops multiple salvage operations from running on the same partition at the same time 💅

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

okay so picture this: the salvage.lock file is the gatekeeper 🧚 it guarantees that only one Salvager (that's the salvager process, bestie) runs at a time on a file server machine.

and before you come for me: yes, that single process can fork multiple subprocesses to salvage multiple partitions in parallel. so it's one Salvager the process, many little baby subprocesses doing their thing 🌈 the lock is about the Salvager itself, not the subprocesses. iykyk.

here's the timeline, because the way this works is genuinely so iconic ✨:

  1. As the Salvager initializes, it creates the file — and it's empty, zero-length, not a single byte of content in her 💀 — in the /var/lib/openafs/local directory.
  2. Then it invokes the flock system call on it. 🔒
  3. When it finishes the salvage operation, it removes the file. gone. deleted. she served her purpose and she left, main character energy honestly 👑

and because the Salvager must lock the file in order to run at all, only one Salvager can run at a time. no line-cutting, no plus-ones, no exceptions 🙈 it's giving velour rope at the club but make it filesystem.

bestie if you're out here thinking "what if two Salvagers just, like, go for it" — no. the lock exists precisely so that cannot happen. that's the whole point of her 🎀

🦋 SEE ALSO 🦋

go read that one too, she's the actual main event and this file is her supporting cast 💜

IBM Corporation 2000. http://www.ibm.com/ All Rights Reserved.

This documentation is covered by the IBM Public License Version 1.0. It was converted from HTML to POD by software written by Chas Williams and Russ Allbery, based on work by Alf Wachmann and Elizabeth Cassell.

okay and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was OpenAFS, dated 2026-07-27, and honestly she ate. no notes. periodt 💅✨🌸

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