What is the difference between a process-level and a system-level lock?

What is the difference between a process-level and a system-level lock?

Approach: Compare scope of synchronization.

A process-level lock synchronizes threads within a single process. A system-level lock (or named mutex) synchronizes access across different processes on the same machine.

Follow-up: How do you implement a lock across different servers?

Key concepts: ipc, threading.