Two programs to ensure atomic(?) operations on periodic operations by making an entry that stores the last time the operation was done. See comment below for more information, no formatting in here! To compile, download all three of these files and run `make`

chkentry.cpp

#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
#include <time.h>
#include <cstdlib>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	if (argc != 3)
		return 2;

	std::ifstream log(argv[1], std::fstream::in | std::fstream::binary);
	time_t log_time = 0;

	log.read((char*) &log_time, sizeof(time_t));
	log.close();
	
	if ((time(0) - log_time) > atoi(argv[2]))
		return 0;
	else
		return 1;
}

Makefile

CC=g++
CPPFLAGS=-m64 -std=c++11 -pedantic -Wall -Wshadow -Wpointer-arith -Wcast-qual -Wno-switch

BIN=$(patsubst %.cpp,bin/%,$(wildcard *.cpp))

all: $(BIN)

bin/%: %.cpp
	mkdir -p bin/
	$(CC) $(CPPFLAGS) $< -o $@

clean:
	rm -rfv bin/

mkentry.cpp

#include <fstream>
#include <time.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	if (argc != 2)
		return 2;
	
	std::ofstream log(argv[1], std::fstream::out | std::fstream::trunc | std::fstream::binary );
	time_t log_time = time(0);
	
	log.write((char*) &log_time, sizeof(time_t));
	log.close();
	
	if (log.failbit)
		return 3;
	
	return 0;
}

Formatting problems with description, it was:

Two programs to ensure atomic(?) operations on periodic operations by making an entry that stores the last time the operation was done, use as:

chkentry <entry path> <period in seconds> && your_operations; mkentry <entry path>

• chkentry return codes:
  • 0: Time in entry was as long enough ago as the argument passed
  • 1: Time in entry wasn't long enough ago.
  • 2: Incorrect number of arguments passed.
• mkentry return codes:
  • 0: Writing new entry was successful
  • 2: Incorrect number of arguments passed.
  • 3: There was an error relating to the file. Please check permissions and stuff!