Run this as one process: #!/bin/sh while [ 1 = 1 ]; do iptables -t mangle -F chain1 iptables -t mangle -X chain1 iptables -t mangle -N chain1 || exit 1 done Run this as another process: #!/bin/sh while [ 1 = 1 ]; do iptables -t mangle -F chain2 iptables -t mangle -X chain2 iptables -t mangle -N chain2 || exit 1 done and you get: iptables: No chain/target/match by that name iptables: No chain/target/match by that name iptables: Unknown error 4294967295 iptables: Unknown error 4294967295 iptables: Chain already exists iptables: Unknown error 4294967295 iptables: Unknown error 4294967295 iptables: Unknown error 4294967295 iptables v1.3.5: can't initialize iptables table `mangle': Bad file descriptor Perhaps iptables or your kernel needs to be upgraded. <... etc> I'm don't understand the things going on under the surface, so maybe there is a reason it's impossible to have some kind of locking to prevent this, like for example, with chmod: #!/bin/sh while [ 1 = 1 ]; do chmod 777 mod_me done #!/bin/sh while [ 1 = 1 ]; do chmod 666 mod_me done (no errors) _______________________________________________ LARTC mailing list LARTC@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://mailman.ds9a.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/lartc