This property is used to signify that the file it's attached to ought to be locked before editing. The value of the property is irrelevant; Subversion will normalize its value to *. When present, the file will be read-only unless the user has explicitly locked the file. When a lock-token is present (as a result of running svn lock ), the file becomes read-write. When the lock is released, the file becomes read-only again.

To learn more about how, when, and why this property should be used, see the section called “Lock Communication”.