Much more for what? In this context, "lockfile" means a file listing all your project dependencies with exact versions pinned. (Not semaphore-files or anything like that. It's not even a python-specific term, e.g. npm uses package-lock.json for the same purpose.) The need for something to store all dependencies with exact versions pinned exists in any language and infrastructure, are there any better solutions than store them in a file? Files are nice, they are VCS-friendly and everything.