Running test suites under Windows 7

[Paulo Pinto]

On Saturday, 6 October 2012 at 07:33:51 UTC, Sönke Ludwig wrote:
> Am 10/6/2012 8:41 AM, schrieb Walter Bright:
>> When I first installed Win7, I was having problems with 
>> erratic failures
>> to write executable files while running the D test suite. 
>> Eventually, I
>> discovered that Windows Defender was the problem, as it tried 
>> to do a
>> virus can on every exe the test suite produced.
>> 
>> Turning off WD helped a lot, but I still got those failures 
>> every once
>> in a while.
>> 
>> I have since discovered that "Microsoft Security Essentials" 
>> was doing a
>> "real time scan", mucking things up. That has to be turned 
>> off, too.
>
> Jep, it's definitely not easy to get this reliable on Windows. 
> Back when
> I had a similar problem, an explorer window displaying the same 
> folder
> also caused this.

This happens, because contrary to UNIX based systems, Windows has 
real locks.

On one side, it is good as the operating system real enforces 
them. On the other hand it can lead to such scenarios if the 
applications are not properly coded to work with file locking 
mechanisms.

UNIX systems on the other hand, still have the cooperating locks 
of the old days, meaning if my application doesn't give a damn 
about locks, it still can manipulate the file. Which might have 
some nasty consequences.

Does any other operating system makes use of cooperative locks?

--
Paulo