Process locking on linux

[greasebuttmonkey]

Hi all,

 

I'm trying to rewrite one of my scripts and implement a new feature as follows: the script is ran with one or two parameters, first parameter being the one I'm trying to focus on. I want to make sure if someone else tries to run the script with the same first parameter he/she will get an error. In the same time he/she is allowed to run the script with some other parameter. So basically, this new feature will try to emulate/implement the same locking mechanism linux has for the shell scripts but  I cannot use this same mechanism as my script depends on the first parameter I'm passing on. In linux you can at most write (and subsequently read from) the pid number in the lock file. In my case, the cut off criteria is the first parameter and not the pid number.

Thanks in advance for any idea.