Convert convwork -RMS-E-FLKRMS-E-FLK error

[M.K.A.F. Schuurman]

Sometimes during/starting this convert i get a error.
Does some one know the problem, knows what it means, and the answer to solve this?
I'am running OpenVMS 7.3-2


$ convert/fdl=reg.fdl/truncate -
reg.tmp -
reg.do1
%CONVERT-F-CREA_ERR,
error creating work file CONVWORK
-RMS-E-FLKRMS-E-FLK,
file currently locked by another user

[John Gillings]

This may be clashing with another process trying to create the same CONVWORK file. Normally CONVERT and SORT are fairly good at keeping work files independent, even if you define multiple processes to go to the same location/filename, but I suspect there are still ways to break it if you try hard enough.

There are a number of things to try. First define your SORTWORK and CONVWORK logical names to be unique to the process. Under V7.3-2 you have the lexical function F$UNIQUE to help:

$ DEFINE CONVWORK1 dev:[dir]'F$UNIQUE()

Another option is to define the logical names to point to a non-existant directory:

$ DEFINE CONVWORK1 dev:[NOSUCHDIR]

This will cause the files to be created without entering them into a directory, therefore they can't clash (but if the process is deleted you may end up with lost files on the disk).

[Ian Miller.]

I've seen this with shared work directories.
I'm intriqued by the use of a non-existant directory but it will lead to lost files so be prepared to find them.

On versions earlier than V7.3-2 then f$getjpi("","PID") can be used to form unique filenames.