".lock" file on flash drive?

[Dreamstalker]

I'm not sure if the "problem" is with my flash drive (Corsair Voyager 4GB that's a few years old), OpenOffice, or my desktop in general.

Each time I open a file directly from the flash drive in OO, another small file creates itself in the directory that the file is in. The file is ".~lock.[filename].doc#" and it cannot be opened by any program (the filesize of the current one is 151 bytes, if that helps).

So what is this thing and where did it come from? I just noticed it in the past few weeks. If I delete it, nothing gets messed up, it just respawns when the "parent" file is reopened (eta: now the file won't open from the flashdrive). An AV scan of the drive comes up clean.

[prb]

It's a lock file used to prevent conflicts if another application was to open your file, it *should* check for lock files and if there is return an error saying that it's in use and cannot be edited.

[Dreamstalker]

Interesting, it was created in Microsoft Word (the original file waybackwhen was an .rtf I believe), but that was a couple years ago and I haven't used Word since, only OO.

[Broomjockey]

It's an OO.org feature. It prevents anyone from working on the file while you're working on it. So that wouldn't happen with Word, it does something else.

The real question is: does the lock file delete on its own after you close the file when you're done working on it? It's supposed to clear itself.

[prb]

It's an OO.org feature. It prevents anyone from working on the file while you're working on it. So that wouldn't happen with Word, it does something else.

The real question is: does the lock file delete on its own after you close the file when you're done working on it? It's supposed to clear itself.

I think its not deleting, but I've never had good luck with lock files, but my problem is with apt not oo.o

[Broomjockey]

I think its not deleting

Probably, but I'd still like to know if it's every time, or just occasionally.

[EricKei]

Word does something similar. iirc, it generates a Hidden file whose icon kinda sorta looks like a document "fragment" in the same directory as the base file. When you close the original file, the temporary one goes away. Presumably, it's supposed to help to recover some data in case of a crash, as well.

I'm not 100% sure, but ithe file may not show up until the first time a given file does an autosave in the background during the current Word session.

[Geek King]

Word does something similar. iirc, it generates a Hidden file whose icon kinda sorta looks like a document "fragment" in the same directory as the base file.

It does ideed do something like that. Every once in awhile (fairly rarely) I have to go in and delete the hidden file because it doesn't get removed for some reason--usually sudden power loss. I'd imagine that OO may get those issues occasionally too, although I haven't run into it yet.

[MrSmiley]

First make sure your OpenOffice is at least 3.1, there were some issues there with .lock files that were fixed. Other than that, the two most common causes for this seem to be OS permissions (user has permission to create/modify a file in a folder, but not delete it... naturally this affects the .lock) and OpenOffice user information (the .lock works by reading the UserData (name, initials, etc) that you configured the OO install/user with... to determine who's working on what)

Those are the only suggestions I have, but it's definitely an OpenOffice issue as far as technical support and looking up information is concerned.