Using the lockd API

lockd provides a light-weight implementation of a locking mechanism for long-running resources by maintaining lock files in a given directory.

>>> import tempfile
>>> lockdir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
>>> from gocept.lockd.lockd import Lockd
>>> daemon = Lockd(lockdir)

Resources are identified by a string and clients performing the lock are identified by another string:

>>> daemon.lock('resource1', 'client1')

Once a resource is locked, it can not be locked again:

>>> daemon.lock('resource1', 'client2')
Traceback (most recent call last):
Exception: Resource already locked by 'client1'

However, other resources can be locked in parallel:

>>> daemon.lock('resource2', 'client2')

Clients, other than the client who locked a resource, can not unlock it:

>>> daemon.unlock('resource1', 'client2')
Traceback (most recent call last):
Exception: Resource locked by 'client1' cannot be unlocked by 'client2'

The client, who locked the resource, can unlock it again:

>>> daemon.unlock('resource1', 'client1')

Once unlocked, it can not be unlocked a second time:

>>> daemon.unlock('resource1', 'client1')
Traceback (most recent call last):
Exception: Resource not locked

IMPORTANT security note

Resource identification and client authorization are out of scope for lockd. It should only be used and exposed within a trusted environment.

Cleanup:

>>> import shutil
>>> shutil.rmtree(lockdir)