I wrote Script::Singleton exactly for this task.

It uses the shared memory functionality of IPC::Shareable which I also maintain.

To use it, you literally only need to use it:

use Script::Singleton;

[download]

...done.

It uses the script's path and filename as the "glue" aka. shared memory key for identification. If you want to use a custom glue:

use Script::Singleton glue => 'UNIQUE GLUE STRING';

[download]

Best part I like about it is that if there's a system interruption or reboot, you don't have to worry about lock files hanging around.

Here's an example (using the module with the warn parameter which is false by default):

use warnings;
use strict;

use Script::Singleton warn => 1;

sleep 5;

[download]

Run the script in one CLI, and within five seconds, run it in a second window and you'll get:

Process ID 24891 exited due to exclusive shared memory collision at segment/semaphore key '0x40d7106c'

In reply to Re: Mechanism for ensuring only one instance of a Perl script can only run? by stevieb
in thread Mechanism for ensuring only one instance of a Perl script can only run? by redapplesonly

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