Could it be you posted the very same question in the newsgroup <comp.lang.perl.misc>? It sure looks that way. So people interested in the replies should check out the replies in that thread as well. As usual, Benjamin Goldberg gave a pretty solid reply. Most important tip of all: do not unlock a file before closing it.

In reply to Re: fcntl() madness with C and perl by bart
in thread fcntl() madness with C and perl by darkomen

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