MySQL allows client sessions to acquire table locks explicitly for the purpose of cooperating with other sessions for access to tables, or to prevent other sessions from modifying tables during periods when a session requires exclusive access to them.
A session can acquire or release locks only for itself. One session cannot acquire locks for another session or release locks held by another session.
LOCK TABLES explicitly acquires table locks for the current client session. Table locks can be acquired for base tables or views. You must have the LOCK TABLES privilege, and the SELECT privilege for each object to be locked.
UNLOCK TABLES explicitly releases any table locks held by the current session. LOCK TABLES implicitly releases any table locks held by the current session before acquiring new locks.
Syntax
LOCK TABLES
tbl_name [[AS] alias] lock_type
[, tbl_name [[AS] alias] lock_type] …
lock_type:
READ [LOCAL]
| [LOW_PRIORITY] WRITE
UNLOCK TABLES