Locking a config variable

Hi all,

I'm saving an array in $config array like this one below:

Code:

$config['listed'] = array(86, 52, 265, 7, 580);

And this array get updated from database when a certain event is fired by privileged users. Now my question is that what if a script gets updated values from database & updates the config item and another script tries to read the same config item meanwhile. Should I worry about this and how should I handle the executions?

I know about file locking but never used that and not sure how to apply for a variable (config item).