The lockfile module exports a FileLock class which provides a simple
API for locking files. Unlike the Windows msvcrt.locking function, the
Unix fcntl.flock, fcntl.lockf and the deprecated posixfile module, the
API is identical across both Unix (including Linux and Mac) and Windows
platforms. The lock mechanism relies on the atomic nature of the link
(on Unix) and mkdir (on Windows) system calls.