def lock (self):
        '''
        Creates and holds on to the lock file with exclusive access.
        Returns True if lock successful, False if it is not, and raises
        an exception upon operating system errors encountered creating the
        lock file.
        '''
        try:
            #
            # Create or else open and trucate lock file, in read-write mode.
            #
            # A crashed app might not delete the lock file, so the
            # os.O_CREAT | os.O_EXCL combination that guarantees
            # atomic create isn't useful here.  That is, we don't want to
            # fail locking just because the file exists.
            #
            # Could use os.O_EXLOCK, but that doesn't exist yet in my Python
            #
            self.lockfd = os.open (self.lockfile,
                                   os.O_TRUNC | os.O_CREAT | os.O_RDWR)

            # Acquire exclusive lock on the file, but don't block waiting for it
            fcntl.flock (self.lockfd, fcntl.LOCK_EX | fcntl.LOCK_NB)

            # Writing to file is pointless, nobody can see it
            os.write (self.lockfd, "My Lockfile")

            return True
        except (OSError, IOError), e:
            # Lock cannot be acquired is okay, everything else reraise exception
            if e.errno in (errno.EACCES, errno.EAGAIN):
                return False
            else:
                raise

        Creates and holds on to the lock file with exclusive access.
        Returns True if lock successful, False if it is not, and raises
        an exception upon operating system errors encountered creating the
        lock file.
        
recipes/Python/576891_Application_lock/recipe-576891.py