Is this a read/write race condition?

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antonyliu2002@yahoo.com - 26 Jul 2007 17:01 GMT

I do not quite understand the race condition.

As I posted a couple of days ago, I create a PDF on the fly in my web
application at regular intervals. Users will be able to download the
PDF file.

Suppose, at the time when my application is in the process of
generating the PDF file (which takes around 2.5 minutes), a user tries
to download it, will this be a problem?

I checked the Lock method of FileStream. The description of this
method says:

Prevents other processes from changing the FileStream while permitting
read access.

>From the description, read access is permitted even if the stream is

locked. So, it looks like the creation of the PDF file and the
downloading of this file can happen at the same time without a
problem, right?

Thanks.

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Lloyd Sheen - 26 Jul 2007 18:19 GMT

>I do not quite understand the race condition.
>
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
>
> Thanks.

Perhaps you could do one of the following:

1. Create the PDF with a different name than the name which users will
download. Once the PDF is created then delete the old one and change the
name of the new one to the download name.

2. Disable the mechanism (button ??) to download the file while a new on is
being created.

Hope this helps,

Lloyd Sheen

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antonyliu2002@yahoo.com - 26 Jul 2007 19:10 GMT

> <antonyliu2...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
>
[quoted text clipped - 35 lines]
>
> Lloyd Sheen

Hi, Lloyd,

Thanks. your idea 1 is absolutely a good solution, since changing the
file name is only a flash of second in an application. That will
certainly reduce the probability of race condition otherwise imposed
in a 2.5-minute duration when the PDF file is being created.

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Is this a read/write race condition?

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