NAME
aelock - take a lock while a command runs
SYNOPSIS
aelock [ option... ] command
aelock -Help
aelock -VERSion
DESCRIPTION
The aelock" command is used to take a project lock while a command
runs. This may be used to ensure that the project state is stable
while it is being backed up.
The named command is looked for as an attribute called aelock:command
within the project_specific field of the project configuration file.
The command is then passed through the usual aesub(5) substitutions
before being executed. The command is executed as the project owner.
If the command returns with a non-zero exit status, the aelock(1)
command will return an exit status of one.
Security Issues
This command is a potential security problem. Because it takes a read-
only lock of all active branches and changes in a project, from the
trunk down, misuse of this command is a potential denial of service
attack. Thus, this command is limited to project administrators only.
This command could have been designed to take an arbitrary command to
execute, like sudo(1), but this would have granted users, even project
administrators, more privileges than usual. For this reason, the
command is held in a source controlled, fully reviewed project
configuration file, and is simply indicated by name.
The command is run as the project owner, not the executing user. It
has full write access (that’s the way Unix permissions work). Like
aeb(1), this means it can wreak havoc on the project baseline and meta-
data. Use with extreme care.
OPTIONS
The following options are understood:
-Project name
This option may be used to select the project of interest.
When no -Project option is specified, the AEGIS_PROJECT
environment variable is consulted. If that does not exist, the
user’s $HOME/.aegisrc file is examined for a default project
field (see aeuconf(5) for more information). If that does not
exist, when the user is only working on changes within a single
project, the project name defaults to that project. Otherwise,
it is an error.
-Help
This option may be used to obtain more information about how to
use the aelock program.
See also aegis(1) for options common to all aegis commands.
All options may be abbreviated; the abbreviation is documented as the
upper case letters, all lower case letters and underscores (_) are
optional. You must use consecutive sequences of optional letters.
All options are case insensitive, you may type them in upper case or
lower case or a combination of both, case is not important.
For example: the arguments "-project, "-PROJ" and "-p" are all
interpreted to mean the -Project option. The argument "-prj" will not
be understood, because consecutive optional characters were not
supplied.
Options and other command line arguments may be mixed arbitrarily on
the command line, after the function selectors.
The GNU long option names are understood. Since all option names for
aelock are long, this means ignoring the extra leading ’-’. The
"--option=value" convention is also understood.
EXIT STATUS
The aelock command will exit with a status of 1 on any error. The
aelock command will only exit with a status of 0 if there are no
errors.
ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
See aegis(1) for a list of environment variables which may affect this
command. See aepconf(5) for the project configuration file’s project_
specific field for how to set environment variables for all commands
executed by Aegis.
COPYRIGHT
aelock version 4.24.3.D001
Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 Peter
Miller
The aelock program comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for details use
the ’aelock -VERSion License’ command. This is free software and you
are welcome to redistribute it under certain conditions; for details
use the ’aelock -VERSion License’ command.
AUTHOR
Peter Miller E-Mail: millerp@canb.auug.org.au
/\/\* WWW: http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/