Well, in my environment, I would yell down the hall "Everybody please stay out of the system for a few minutes"...

But I realize that might not apply in your situation...

I think the program could try to USE a file exclusively and, upon failure, alert the user that the operation was unable to complete...you could do this in a timed-loop or whatever...
If a file is USEd exclusively and another user tries to use it: That situation should be handled in your error handler...

Joe

>What is the best way to handle packing tables in an application? How do I handle the issues of required exclusive use to PACK on a multiuser system? If someone has exclusive use of the application, how do I lock others out while the packing is in progress?
>
>I'm open to any and all suggestions.