[lug] Polling a file under linux

[Bear Giles]

Ed Hill wrote:
>   2) the potential *RACE CONDITION* of having a partially-edited 
>      config file is (largely) avoided.
> 
> Think about it.  The second problem is non-trivial.  While a config file
> is being edited, it could easily contain incomplete information.

flock(), using the cached previous contents if you can't obtain a 
shared lock on the file.

You still need to use an editor that gets an exclusive lock on the 
files it edits, but that should be standard behavior in any decent 
editor.

But overall I agree with the suggestion that you just reread the 
file whenever you get HUP'd.