On Tue, 2006-03-28 at 14:56 +0200, David Welton wrote:

> There are two processes, A, and B.
> 
> A is a daemon process that performs a select, and then slowly iterates
> over the results, performing updates along the way.
> 
> It is possible that interactive process B comes along, and wants to
> change the data that A is working with.  B should not 1) hang or 2)
> fail (it's interactive, and in this case the user is always right). 
> It's not optimal, but it would be ok if A failed - indeed, it would be
> better than if it kept working with the (now incorrect) data that it
> pulled from the select prior to the user's intervention.

A should use serializable transaction, so it will fail whenever it sees
a row updated by B. That way A will fail as you request.

Try breaking down the A query with LIMIT/OFFSET so that it never holds
locks for long. That way B will not wait for long, if at all, and will
not fail.

Best Regards, Simon Riggs


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