Lock File Brain Damage?

[Robert J. Granvin]

Greetings.

I have a 3b1 that talks to a whole slug of sites quite regularly.
Since many of these sites have multiple inbound modems, I want to
systematically try them until I get one that is available.  Therefore,
I have installed multiple entries in my L.sys file appropriate for
each site.

The theory is, if the first modem is busy or doesn't answer, it will
go to the second, and so on.  If one connects, the cycle stops.  It
will only fail if all entries fail.  This works wonderfully.

But, what I have discovered, at least on the 3b1, is that when the
first entry is called, a LCK file is created for the site, and also
for the serial device.  This is correct.  When the first call fails,
the LCK files are removed.  Again, perfectly correct.  When it second
entry is called, NO LCK FILE IS CREATED for the serial device.
Whooops!  This is definately a problem!  (More than my fair share of
connections have been destroyed by uucico trying to take the serial
device it thinks is available).

This occurs on 3b1's running 3.51 or 3.51a, and also using ph0 or ph1.
It doesn't matter.

Should I be correct and consider this a serious bug, or better yet,
does anyone have a suggested resolution before I call the hotline and
argue for 20 minutes as to whether I should actually pay the $120 to
talk to a tech...?  :-)

email responses are preferred.  A summary can follow if there is any
resolution...

Thank you for your support.

-- 
"How can you possibly hurt yourself by      Robert J. Granvin
 falling on your face?"                     National Information Systems, Inc.

rjg at sialis.mn.org        UUCP:...uunet!{amdahl,hpda,rosevax}!bungia!sialis!rjg