code: private String readLockFile() {
          String msg = null;
          try (RandomAccessFile f = new RandomAccessFile(lockFile, "rw")) {
              msg = f.readLine();
          } catch (IOException ex) {
              LOGGER.debug(String.format("Error reading lock file: %s", lockFile), ex);
          }
          return msg;
      }
docs: Reads the first line from the lock file and returns the results as a
  string.
  
  @return the first line from the lock file; or null if the contents could
  not be read