fcntl.flock - how to implement a timeout?

Question

I am using python 2.7

I want to create a wrapper function around fcntl.flock() that will timeout after a set interval:

wrapper_function(timeout):
         


        

Answer 1

For Python 3.5+, Glenn Maynard's solution no longer works because of PEP-475. This is a modified version:

import signal, errno
from contextlib import contextmanager
import fcntl

@contextmanager
def timeout(seconds):
    def timeout_handler(signum, frame):
        # Now that flock retries automatically when interrupted, we need
        # an exception to stop it
        # This exception will propagate on the main thread, make sure you're calling flock there
        raise InterruptedError

    original_handler = signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, timeout_handler)

    try:
        signal.alarm(seconds)
        yield
    finally:
        signal.alarm(0)
        signal.signal(signal.SIGALRM, original_handler)

with timeout(1):
    f = open("test.lck", "w")
    try:
        fcntl.flock(f.fileno(), fcntl.LOCK_EX)
    except InterruptedError:
        # Catch the exception raised by the handler
        # If we weren't raising an exception, flock would automatically retry on signals
        print("Lock timed out")