Greg Minshall <minshall@umich.edu> writes:

> i run various Emacs instances, in each of which i run org.  i frequently
> get these messages (followed by errors when i reply 'q'):
> ----
> ...rg-persist/gc-lock.eld locked by minshall@arch... (pid 546721): (s, q, p, ?)? 
> Error running timer ‘org-persist--refresh-gc-lock’: (file-locked "/home/minshall/.cache/org-persist/gc-lock.eld" "minshall@archlinux (pid 546721)")
> ----
>
> since i don't see a PID in the lock file name (i assume it is), i wonder
> if the code occasionally has this problem when more than one instance
> attempts to acquire this lock at a time?

In theory, the odds should be quite slim, unless you open that file
manually. Anyway...

Does the attached patch fix the problem for you?