MySQL Transactions, Part III – BDB Tables, Table locking and Savepoints

BDB Transactions

The previous two columns
in this series have covered general
transactions with InnoDB tables
and transaction
isolation levels
. This month, we look at transactions with other table
types, specifically BDB tables, and all other table types, including the
default MyISAM table type.

BDB Tables are not that
commonly used. Most tables tend to be either the default MyISAM table type, or,
for those specifically wanting ACID compliance, InnoDB. BDB (standing for BerkeleyDB)
is the poor relation as far as MySQL goes, a table type that precedes InnoDB,
and was included for its transactional capability, but which never achieved as
much popularity. The BDB format itself is stable (it is supplied by a third
party – Sleepycat Software), but the MySQL interface to it is not yet
‘production’.

mysql>CREATE TABLE bdb_table(f INT) TYPE = BDB

First up, note a very
important difference in the default behavior of BDB tables compared with InnoDB
tables. From one connection, run the following:


mysql> BEGIN;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO bdb_table VALUES(1);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

From a
second connection, see what the table contains:

mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;

Note that the connection
hangs – it is waiting for the other connection to COMMIT its transaction before
returning a result. Remember that InnoDB tables returned a result based upon
the data before any other uncommitted transactions had begun. Commit the
transaction, and the result appears:

Connection
1:

mysql> COMMIT;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Connection
2:


mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;
+——+
| f |
+——+
| 1 |
+——+
1 row in set (7.08 sec)

This default behavior
could lead to performance problems in your applications, and is one of the
reasons for InnoDB’s greater popularity.

Autocommit

MySQL’s default behavior
is to automatically commit statements not explicitly wrapped in a transaction.
As we saw here
with InnoDB tables, this means any statement that does not have a BEGIN
preceding it will be immediately carried out (as if you were using the
non-transactional MyISAM table type), as demonstrated below.

From
Connection 1:

mysql> INSERT INTO bdb_table VALUES(2);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Connection
2:


mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;
+——+
| f |
+——+
| 1 |
| 2 |
+——+
2 rows in set (0.00 sec)

You can circumvent this behavior
by setting AUTOCOMMIT to 0, in which case all statements are treated as if a
BEGIN statement precedes them, for example:

Connection
1:

mysql> SET AUTOCOMMIT=1;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.01 sec)
mysql> INSERT INTO bdb_table VALUES(3);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

Connection
2:

mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;

Again the thread hangs,
waiting for a commit from the first connection.

Connection
1:

mysql> COMMIT;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

Connection
2:

mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;
+------+
| f    |
+------+
|    1 |
|    2 |
|    3 |
+------+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Of course, BDB tables
also use the ROLLBACK statement to return the data back to the status it was in
prior to the transaction:

Connection
1:


mysql> BEGIN;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> INSERT INTO bdb_table VALUES(4);
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.01 sec)

mysql> ROLLBACK;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> SELECT * FROM bdb_table;
+——+
| f |
+——+
| 1 |
| 2 |
| 3 |
+——+
3 rows in set (0.00 sec)

Ian Gilfillan
Ian Gilfillan
Ian Gilfillan lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of the book 'Mastering MySQL 4', published by Sybex, and has been working with MySQL since 1997. These days he develops mainly in PHP and MySQL, although confesses to starting out with BASIC and COBOL, way back when, and still has a soft spot for Perl. He developed South Africa's first online grocery store, and has developed and taught internet development and other technical courses for various institutions. He has majors in Programming and Information Systems, as well as English and Philosophy. For 5 years he was Lead Developer and IT Manager for Independent Online, South Africa's premier news portal. However, he has now 'retired' from fulltime work, and is hoping that his next book will be more in the style of William Blake and Allen Ginsberg.

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