This class provides an interface to an object that can be used by multiple applications to control access to a shared resource (such as a file). This class works by creating an entry in the filesystem at a path known to each application that is interested in acquiring a lock to access the shared resource.

A distributed lock object is initialized with a filesystem entry using the method initWithPath:. To acquire a lock, thus making it safe to access a resource, we use the method tryLock. This method returns a BOOL indicating whether or not it was successful in attempting to acquire a lock. To relinquish a previously acquired lock, use the method unlock.

@interface NSDistributedLock : NSObject
// Initializers
- (id)initWithPath:(NSString *)path;
// Class Methods
+ (NSDistributedLock *)lockWithPath:(NSString *)path;
// Instance Methods
- (void)breakLock;
- (NSDate *)lockDate;
- (BOOL)tryLock;
- (void)unlock;