ipc-lock

Cross-process named locks for Rust.

Works across both threads and processes on the same machine. The cross-platform code uses no unsafe; platform-specific Win32 calls are contained in a small, scoped module.

MSRV: Rust 1.89+

Platform support

Usage

[dependencies]
ipc-lock = "0.1"

use ipc_lock::{Lock, Result};

fn main() -> Result<()> {
    let lock = Lock::new("my-app")?;
    let _guard = lock.lock()?;   // blocks until the lock is free
    // critical section …
    Ok(())                        // _guard dropped → lock released automatically
}

Lock is cheaply cloneable — all clones share the same underlying state:

let lock  = Lock::new("my-app")?;
let other = lock.clone();        // O(1) Arc clone, same lock

let _guard = lock.lock()?;
assert!(other.try_lock().is_err()); // WouldBlock

Name rules

• Must not be empty.
• Must not contain \0, /, or \.

On Unix the lock file is placed at $TMPDIR/<name>.lock (falling back to /tmp/<name>.lock). Use [Lock::with_path] to specify an exact path.

Platform notes

Unix lock-file cleanup

The library intentionally leaves the lock file in place after the lock is released. You can retrieve the path with [Lock::path] and delete it when you know no other process is using the lock:

let lock = Lock::new("my-app")?;
// ... use the lock ...
drop(lock);
std::fs::remove_file(lock.path())?;

Deleting the file while another process may still be using the lock can break mutual exclusion, because a new process would create a fresh file at the same path.

Windows abandoned mutexes

If a Windows process terminates without releasing the named mutex, the next waiter still acquires the lock successfully, but [LockGuard::is_abandoned()] returns true. This signals that any shared state protected by the lock may be inconsistent.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.