NFS help

[G.Pavlov]

  We would like to run a program on several hosts (uVaxen and MIPS) which
  would access and write to a common set of files stored on one uVAX but
  mounted remotely on the other systems via NFS.

  This program was written a long time ago, so advisory file "locking" is
  simulated via a create of an empty file, same mechanism as uucp.

  Is this a valid mechanism to use under NFS ?  Our "research" of various
  manual sets evinced only the usual warning re failure of flock, etc.  Is
  there any "guarantee" that creat() will yield valid results, if attempted
  simultaneously from several hosts, accessing a mounted NFS directory tree?

  thanks, greg pavlov, fstrf, amherst, ny