fcntl.lockf()

fcntl.lockf(fd, cmd, len=0, start=0, whence=0)

This is essentially a wrapper around the fcntl() locking calls. fd is the file descriptor of the file to lock or unlock, and cmd is one of the following values:

• LOCK_UN – unlock
• LOCK_SH – acquire a shared lock
• LOCK_EX – acquire an exclusive lock

When cmd is LOCK_SH or LOCK_EX, it can also be bitwise ORed with LOCK_NB to avoid blocking on lock acquisition. If LOCK_NB is used and the lock cannot be acquired, an OSError will be raised and the exception will have an errno attribute set to EACCES or EAGAIN (depending on the operating system; for portability, check for both values). On at least some systems, LOCK_EX can only be used if the file descriptor refers to a file opened for writing.

len is the number of bytes to lock, start is the byte offset at which the lock starts, relative to whence, and whence is as with io.IOBase.seek(), specifically:

• 0 – relative to the start of the file (os.SEEK_SET)
• 1 – relative to the current buffer position (os.SEEK_CUR)
• 2 – relative to the end of the file (os.SEEK_END)

The default for start is 0, which means to start at the beginning of the file. The default for len is 0 which means to lock to the end of the file. The default for whence is also 0.