>May sound trivial, but I am Just trying to better understand what the SHARED option does in the USE command.
>
>It seems to me that the SHARED option is already embedded in USE command, since I can USE a file across a network already, without having to specify the SHARED option. Almost all the tables I open in a Multi-User environment don't have the SHARED option, and they are all open across the network, no problem.
>
>So my question is, what are the trade offs of using the SHARED option in a USE command ? - What do I lose?, what do I gain?
>
>Here's why I need to know. Only in one part of the code where I am centrally recoding "The last issued serial #', I have a
>USE table IN 0,
>command, and in a multi-user environment sometimes they get the error
>Error: File is in use by another user.
>
>So, I am trying to figure out, how can I eliminate this error?
>Thanks for your help.

That's not trivial. I argue you should NEVER, EVER build a FoxPro add without using SHARED! Exclusive use is the exception, not the rule.

USE THEFILE SHARED
IF RLOCK()
REPLACE serial# with serial# + 1
RETURN serial#
ENDIF
RETURN .F.