I have some Perl scripts on a unix-based server, which access a common text file containing server IPs and login credentials, which are used to login and perform routine operations on those servers. Currently, these scripts are being run manually at different times.
I would like to know that if I cron these scripts to execute at the same time, will it cause any issues with accessing data from the text file (file locking?), since all scripts will essentially be accessing the data file at the same time?
Also, is there a better way to do it (without using a DB – since I can’t, due to some server restrictions) ?
It depends on which kind of access.
There is no problem in reading the data file from multiple processes. If you want to update the data file while it could be read, it’s better to do it atomically (e.g. write a new version under different name, than rename it).