>I was curious how people here are going about securing exclusive access (to shared tables) for packing/reindexing ? I am trying to find a robust way of doing it, and was curious what others have devised

>Tim

we have the need to do exactly what you describe. disclaimer - we have not implemented it yet but i think the logic is well used and sound.

the app has a timer (c timers are much more repliable than vfp timers. look in the download section of UT and you will find c timers) that checks for the exsistence of a notifyfile or a killit file. when that notifyfile is found, the client gets a messagebox that says something like "system being taken down for maintenance in 1 minute. please logoff". when the killit file is found, the client gets a messagebox that says something like "system being taken down" and a QUIT is issued (there may have to be some file cleanup).

the notifyfile and killitfile are written by the person who wants to do the maintenance. of course the maintenance persons code is smart enough to know they wrote the files and should not issue the messageboxes or QUIT. the maintenance person code writes the notifyfile, waits 1 minute and then writes the killitfile, then lets them do the maintenance. .

during the logon, nobody can signon if the notify or killit file exist. after the maintenace person finishes, the notify and killit files are deleted.

what do you think? let me know if you found a better way.

brenda