NAME

FDREQWAIT− fast-disk request timeout environment variable

SYNOPSIS

setenv FDREQWAIT seconds

DESCRIPTION

In a multi-user environment, access to the files on the Fast-Disk is shared among user programs executing on the host computers that are connected to the Fast-Disk hardware.  Every read or write access to the Fast-Disk requires that, for a brief interval, the calling UNIX process will "own" the disk, temporarily excluding all other processes from accessing it.  If, upon attempting to access the disk, a process discovers that the disk is temporarily "owned" by another process, it will wait a predetermined amount of time to obtain ownership.  If ownership is not granted within that time, the libfd function will fail and return an EBUSY error; this is possible during periods of heavy contention for the disk.  By default, the timeout interval is 5 seconds, but it can be changed via the FDREQWAIT environment variable.  The definition of this variable is interpreted as a decimal number specifying the length of the timeout interval in seconds. 

If FDREQWAIT is not present in the environment, the default period of 5 seconds is assumed. 

SEE ALSO

libfd(3H)

Pixar Fast-Disk Product Tutorial

Release β  —  Last change: 10/12/88