The shrinking role of ETXTBSY

Unix-like systems abound with ways to confuse new users, many of which have been present since long before Linux entered the scene. One consistent source of befuddlement is the "text file is busy" (ETXTBSY) error message that is delivered in response to an attempt to overwrite an executable image file. Linux is far less likely to deliver ETXTBSY results than it once was, but they do still happen on occasion. Recent work to simplify the mechanism behind ETXTBSY has raised a more fundamental question: does this error check have any value at all?

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