# for the script #!/usr/bin/perl -w use CGI; use Fcntl qw(O_WRONLY O_CREAT O_EXCL); my $q = new CGI; my $lockfile = '/tmp/lock'; if (sysopen(FH, $lockfile, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_EXCL)) { # sysopen will only work if lockfile does not exist # exec the script and wait for it to complete using bacticks or exec `your_update_script`; close FH; unlink $lockfile or error("

Can't unlink lockfile $lockfile $!

"); print $q->redirect('http://page_to_display_after_update'); } else { error("

Update already in progress!

"); exit; } sub error { print $q->header, shift; }