Sharing Violation with Server-side Includes (172047)

We strongly recommend that all users upgrade to Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) version 6.0 running on Microsoft Windows Server 2003. IIS 6.0 significantly increases Web infrastructure security. For more information about IIS security-related topics, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/prodtech/IIS.mspx

SYMPTOMS

When you try to modify or replace a file that is being called as a server-side Include, you may get a sharing violation. You also may not be able to delete, move, rename, or change this file until the World Wide Web (WWW) service is stopped.

CAUSE

Generally all files published by the World Wide Web Publishing service are shared, and can be updated at any time with no problem, even on a busy server. The exception is with server side includes. The file called by the server-side Include tag is mapped into memory and is not shareable. This can prevent the file from being updated without stopping the WWW service.

Normally this is not a problem, but if the included file is used to display frequently changing information, then it would cause the WWW service to have to be stopped and started more often than normal.

WORKAROUND

If you have dynamically changing data, you should not use a server-side Include to display the information from a file.