Another app is currently holding the xtables lock.

[pogman-code]

Hi,
Lately I have the following error when starting an openvpn client using vpnfailsafe.sh as up/down script:

Jan 19 09:39:17 openvpn[39322]: /etc/openvpn/vpnfailsafe.sh tun0 1500 1553 AAA.BBB.CCC.DDD 255.255.255.0 init
Jan 19 09:39:17 openvpn[39491]: Another app is currently holding the xtables lock. Perhaps you want to use the -w option?
Jan 19 09:39:17 openvpn[39391]: /etc/openvpn/vpnfailsafe.sh:114: `iptables -N "VPNFAILSAFE_$*"' returned 4
Jan 19 09:39:17 openvpn[39322]: WARNING: Failed running command (--up/--down): external program exited with error status: 4
Jan 19 09:39:17 openvpn[39322]: Exiting due to fatal error

I am no iptables expert but as far as I understand there is a race condition somewhere and it suggests to add -w flag to (all?) iptables calls.

Should I do that to the script or is there a more elegant explanation/solution to this issue?

Thanks!

NB: As I was looking for an answer I stumbled upon this blog post that looks pretty close to my problem: https://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/blog/linux/IptablesWOptionFumbles