Snort fatal error locking pid file

[trinli]

I trying out various packages available and I've run into a possible problem with snort.  In the system log, it reports a "fatal error" because it can't lock the pid file.  But, both the pid file and pid.lck files exist.  But, snort is running according to a ps.  Is this actually a problem?

[trinli]

After looking over other snort errors in the forum, this looks like a duplicate entry.  Sorry for the dup.

I have noticed the same things that others have reported.  Snort starts up perfectly if restarted.  No fatal error.  Still might be a bug here.  But, the quick question is if snort is running after the "fatal error" is it really a problem?

EDIT: new information
I just noticed, the error says that it's trying to lock 'for PID "1521"'.  But, on a ps, the snort that's running is PID 993, and 993 is the contents of the pid file in /var/run.  This is confusing.