How can I lock a file using java (if possible)

FileChannel.lock is probably what you want.

try (
    FileInputStream in = new FileInputStream(file);
    java.nio.channels.FileLock lock = in.getChannel().lock();
    Reader reader = new InputStreamReader(in, charset)
) {
    ...
}

(Disclaimer: Code not compiled and certainly not tested.)

Note the section entitled "platform dependencies" in the API doc for FileLock.

If you can use Java NIO (JDK 1.4 or greater), then I think you're looking for java.nio.channels.FileChannel.lock()

FileChannel.lock()

Don't use the classes in thejava.io package, instead use the java.nio package . The latter has a FileLock class. You can apply a lock to a FileChannel.

 try {
        // Get a file channel for the file
        File file = new File("filename");
        FileChannel channel = new RandomAccessFile(file, "rw").getChannel();

        // Use the file channel to create a lock on the file.
        // This method blocks until it can retrieve the lock.
        FileLock lock = channel.lock();

        /*
           use channel.lock OR channel.tryLock();
        */

        // Try acquiring the lock without blocking. This method returns
        // null or throws an exception if the file is already locked.
        try {
            lock = channel.tryLock();
        } catch (OverlappingFileLockException e) {
            // File is already locked in this thread or virtual machine
        }

        // Release the lock - if it is not null!
        if( lock != null ) {
            lock.release();
        }

        // Close the file
        channel.close();
    } catch (Exception e) {
    }