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/

Reference Manual                                      Aegis                                            aelock(1)