Re: how to check uniqueness of uidNumber ?

[Jim C <jcllings@tsunamicomm.net>]

As a matter of fact I know C but I'm a little rusty.
That's a great idea but I'm not sure if I have the time to develop it 
this quarter and unfortunately this quarter is my last before 
graduation.  I suppose I might pick it up afterwards but it is more 
likely that I will be in panic mode trying to get work sos I don't loose 
my apt. :-/

I'm working on a php script and a bash script for the purpose... any 
reason I cannot just touch off a lock file and then check for it?
Hmmm... for speed/scaleability I could check a shell variable instead of 
a file... assumeing that there are shell variables that users cannot 
mess with i.e. that ownership *is* an issue with shell variables.


Jim C.

> I reckon that David Smith's SQL solution is pretty good, especially if

How would that work without a SQL type backend that will work with it?

> you're using something like PHP or Perl. That'd cater for your locking.
>
> If you don't want to learn both PHP and Perl at the same time, a PHP CGI
> binary can be made and installed in /usr/local/bin and called from the
> command line. Others might advise you to go the whole hog and learn C
> :-) but not me.