Why does it say that my file is locked?
When you open Cadence cells for editing, Cadence automatically creates a temporary file called a lock file which prevents others from opening up the same file for edit. Usually, the lock files are deleted when the layout file is saved and closed. However, if Cadence crashes or is improperly closed, the lock file may not be deleted due to the crash, and will prevent you from opening the program:
How do I fix this?
To regain access, you will need to delete all files that end with the .cdslck extension. Be careful to not delete your actual Cadence files.
Through the command line:
- Close all open schematics and layouts
- Navigate to the directory where you start Cadence with the cd command
- Type find . -name "*.cdslck" to find all instances of lock files
- Either use rm filename to remove each file individually, or run find . -name "*.cdslck" -exec rm -f {} \; to remove all lock files at once
- If prompted to delete, say yes
- Make sure to check each directory and subdirectory until ALL lock files are gone
- Restart Cadence
Through the file explorer:
- Close all open schematics and layouts
- Navigate to the directory where you start Cadence in file explorer
- Find and delete every file that ends with the ".cdslck" file extension by right clicking and moving to trash
- Make sure to check each directory and subdirectory until ALL lock files are gone
- Restart Cadence
How do I prevent this from happening again?
Although application crashes can't always be prevented, the best way to make sure you don't inadvertently leave a lock file is to save and exit Cadence properly, so the temporary lock files are automatically removed.