Checking if a file is closed?

[Tve]

I am writing a perl script to scan directories for log files produced by different programs and add the contents of these logfiles to a database ( then delete the logfile). These log files are created while the program executes and closed when the program exits, so these files can be open for a few minutes.

My problem is skipping files that are being created to avoid reading incomplete files.

Will PERL read a log file while it is beeing created?
How could I check if the logfile is closed?

Any advice would be very helpfull.

Thierry

 

[MikeLacey]

Thierry,

You could try and flock() the file to see if the creating process still has it open.

You should, though, be aware that some programs open and close a log file each time it is written.
Mike
michael.j.lacey@ntlworld.com