[p4] Is there a way to write-lock the database while my backup runs?

[Jason Williams]

Ivey, William wrote:
> Temporarily turning off write access to files sounds like a
> decent hack until something better comes along. (I would
> make sure the admin has a full access entry at the end of
> the table, though, in case your stuff crashed before it
> could restore the protect table. You could limit it to some
> part of the depot you don't normally use.

One trick that I use while backing up is to change the protection table 
so that all groups reference a non-existent group ("locked").

A simple perl statement can replace all group names with "locked" and 
then revert back when the backup is completed.

--Jason