From: dale@manet.wustl.edu (Dale Frye)
Subject: Re: Lotus (file locking) problems 
Reply-To: dale@manet.wustl.edu
Organization: Washington University, School of Engineering, St. Louis MO
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 17:14:10 GMT

In article <1992Nov5.032039.29330@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca>  
fred@maccs.dcss.mcmaster.ca (Fred Whiteside) writes:
> In <1992Nov4.231212.15457@wuecl.wustl.edu>, dale@manet.wustl.edu writes:
> >In article <1992Nov4.165813.12620@organpipe.uug.arizona.edu>  
> >jgotobed@lpl.arizona.edu (Joe Gotobed x4549) writes:
> >> .....
> >> I am having a real problem getting lotus 123 V2.3 allowing users
> >> to share files on our network drive.  What happens is that only one
> >> user is allowed to open a file.  After that, the only person that 
> >> lotus allows to open that file is the original creator or first  
person
> >> who opened it up.  The permissions don't matter.  There seems to be a
> >> conflict with the lock manager in PCNFS and the reservations in  
Lotus.
> >> We cannot use lotus on the network until this problem is resolved and
> >> lotus couldn't give us any answer.  Can you place a call to sun or do
> >> you know anyone else that is using PCNFS with lotus that might be  
able
> >> to help us?  Thanks.  
> >> ......
> >
> >I had the same problem. Turns out that it's lockd. Luckily we use  
> >Beame&Whiteside NFS so I was able to run bwnfsd which superceeds lockd  
(if  
> >your nfs package knows how to use it!) I've heard there is a new lockd  
> >available.
> 
> 	Actually, I expect that this problem is that the files are
> being accessed by someone who has write-access to them.  When DOS
> attempts to load a file, the sharing-matrix entry that it gets for
> the open of the file is different if the file appears to be read-only.
> Generally speaking, executable images which are to be shared by a group
> of people should be read-only for those who share, or you will see the
> behaviour described above.

Sorry to jump on you Fred but the original poster is having problems with  
locking of the data files not the program files.  I had a problem with  
Excel locking the data file and then not releasing the lock. As long as  
you were on the same machine (and same login) you could reopen the  
spreadsheet data file. If you went to another machine or logged in with  
another account then Excel would report the file was locked. The lock  
would be removed (of course) when the NFS server was rebooted and then the  
file could be opened once (and only once) on any machine.

We have two machines providing NFS service to our PCs (24 hr student lab).  
One provides DOS program service only. It is exported read-only. It also  
provides authentication (via bwnfsd) and print service. The other server  
is the users' file server. It handles all the user space. This machine is  
shared with all the DOS, UNIX and Mac boxes in the CEC (Center for  
Engineering Computing) labs. Originally I did not run bwnfsd on this  
machine thinking it was not needed however because of the problem with  
lockd (the above problem) I started running bwnfsd to provide locking  
services.

Dale Frye
Washington University in St. Louis
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.nfs