This is how Windows as an operating system works. A file cannot be renamed while it is held open.

A good backup software would request the backup privilege, and use the Windows Backup API. But even then, I'm not sure whether that would allow renaming a file while it is held open.

elef should file a bug report / complaint against this backup software. It doesn't even have to use the Backup API. It can simply specify full sharing when opening the file. Simply add in the FILE_SHARE_DELETE bit (which also allows renaming) when opening the file (though, the Backup API likely provides other benefits).

- tye        

is there an easy workaround (apart from disabling the backup sw)?

You could just keep trying to rename it...

1 until rename $file1, $file2;
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Of course, if a file can genuinely never be renamed, this will cause your script to keep trying forever. Better to limit to a finite number of attempts at renaming.

my $attempts;
while (not rename $file1, $file2)
{
  $attempts++;
  die "Could not rename file: $!" if $attempts > 7;
  sleep $attempts;
}
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You could also throw it into a queue of items "to deal with later".

--MidLifeXis

Thanks. Hoping that copying is more robust than renaming, I tried this:


    unlink "rename2.txt" or die "Can't delete file: $!";
    copy ("rename1.txt", "rename2.txt") or die "Can't copy file: $!";
    unlink "rename1.txt" or die "Can't delete file: $!";
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Errors became less frequent, but they're still there. I'll try your suggestion. I really like the idea of sleeping increasing intervals between attempts, too.

-------------------
Edit: did the test, and the solution works. I also added some reporting to see how many extra attempts are needed for the renamings to succeed. The second attempt was sufficient every time, and it was needed ~50 times before the script got to 10000 loops. I'll implement this with 5 attempts max (just in case the backup sw spends more time on larger files) and forget about the issue. Thanks.

One of the solutions that you could use in conjunction with your script is Unlocker. Although the screen shots highlight the GUI, there's also a command line version. If you used that, your script should then be able to do the rename.