How to create a single instance application in C or C++

A good way is:

#include <sys/file.h>
#include <errno.h>

int pid_file = open("/var/run/whatever.pid", O_CREAT | O_RDWR, 0666);
int rc = flock(pid_file, LOCK_EX | LOCK_NB);
if(rc) {
    if(EWOULDBLOCK == errno)
        ; // another instance is running
}
else {
    // this is the first instance
}

Note that locking allows you to ignore stale pid files (i.e. you don't have to delete them). When the application terminates for any reason the OS releases the file lock for you.

Pid files are not terribly useful because they can be stale (the file exists but the process does not). Hence, the application executable itself can be locked instead of creating and locking a pid file.

A more advanced method is to create and bind a unix domain socket using a predefined socket name. Bind succeeds for the first instance of your application. Again, the OS unbinds the socket when the application terminates for any reason. When bind() fails another instance of the application can connect() and use this socket to pass its command line arguments to the first instance.

Here is a solution in C++. It uses the socket recommendation of Maxim. I like this solution better than the file based locking solution, because the file based one fails if the process crashes and does not delete the lock file. Another user will not be able to delete the file and lock it. The sockets are automatically deleted when the process exits.

Usage:

int main()
{
   SingletonProcess singleton(5555); // pick a port number to use that is specific to this app
   if (!singleton())
   {
     cerr << "process running already. See " << singleton.GetLockFileName() << endl;
     return 1;
   }
   ... rest of the app
}

Code:

#include <netinet/in.h>

class SingletonProcess
{
public:
    SingletonProcess(uint16_t port0)
            : socket_fd(-1)
              , rc(1)
              , port(port0)
    {
    }

    ~SingletonProcess()
    {
        if (socket_fd != -1)
        {
            close(socket_fd);
        }
    }

    bool operator()()
    {
        if (socket_fd == -1 || rc)
        {
            socket_fd = -1;
            rc = 1;

            if ((socket_fd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_DGRAM, 0)) < 0)
            {
                throw std::runtime_error(std::string("Could not create socket: ") +  strerror(errno));
            }
            else
            {
                struct sockaddr_in name;
                name.sin_family = AF_INET;
                name.sin_port = htons (port);
                name.sin_addr.s_addr = htonl (INADDR_ANY);
                rc = bind (socket_fd, (struct sockaddr *) &name, sizeof (name));
            }
        }
        return (socket_fd != -1 && rc == 0);
    }

    std::string GetLockFileName()
    {
        return "port " + std::to_string(port);
    }

private:
    int socket_fd = -1;
    int rc;
    uint16_t port;
};

For windows, a named kernel object (e.g. CreateEvent, CreateMutex). For unix, a pid-file - create a file and write your process ID to it.

You can create an "anonymous namespace" AF_UNIX socket. This is completely Linux-specific, but has the advantage that no filesystem actually has to exist.

Read the man page for unix(7) for more info.