If you build multi-user business systems, you may have had a need at one time or another to temporarily “lock” a process, so that only one user at a time can perform it. A typical drawback to most process locking approaches is that the lock does not automatically clear if the user who locked the process crashes or otherwise bails out of the system abnormally.
Well, I have some good news: Bob Gossom of Absolute Advantage has come up with a very clever, and well-documented, self-clearing process lock technique, which I’m pleased to share here with his permission.
