18

TIPS&TECHNIQUES

&RANCK0ACHOT4RIVADIS3!

Oracle Table Lock Modes

SS, RS, SX, RX, S, SSX, SRX,
X made easy
Locking in Oracle is usually an
easy topic: most of the time, you
dont have to use explicit locks
(the LOCK TABLE statements). The
implicit locking done by DML (insert, update, delete, select for update) is transparent and most of the
time efficient. A query (select without for update) does not lock
anything. Deadlocks are rare and
enqueue wait events are not so
frequent.
But when you need to go further,
to understand a deadlock situation,
to understand why a session is
blocked, or to have an efficient referential integrity validation, then all
that becomes more complex. The
locking mechanism in Oracle is not
simple to understand. There are

Lock Types
A lock is a mechanism used to
serialize access to a resource. As concurrent sessions will wait for the resource, as in a queue, they are also
called enqueues, and this is the term
used in wait events to measure the time
waited. Oracle uses locks to:
protect data as tables, rows, index
entries, (DML Locks)
protect metadata in the dictionary
or in the shared pool (Data Dictionary Lock)
or to protect internal objects in
memory (Latches, Mutextes and
other internal locks).
Here we will be talking about data
only. Data locks are also called DML
locks because they are used for DML
(Data Manipulation Language), but
they are also used by DDL (Data Definition Language) when it accesses data.
There are three types of DML locks:

several names for the same things,

and those names can be misleading. Just a few examples: locks on
rows are called transaction locks,

Row level locks are called transaction locks (TX) because, even if
they are triggered by a concurrent

DML on a row, the locked resource

is the transaction. TX enqueues are
not waiting for a row, but for the
completion of the transaction that
has updated the row.
The TX lock is identified by the
transaction id v$transaction
Table level locks are called table
locks (TM) and the locked resource
is the database object (table, index, partition). In addition to
DML or DDL, they can be acquired
explicitly with the LOCK TABLE
statement.
The TM locks are identified by an
object_id (as in dba_objects)
User defined locks (UL) resource
is not an Oracle object but just a
number that has a meaning only for
the application. They are managed
by the dbms_lock package.
Here we are talking about table
locks (TM) only, but we will explain
quickly TX locks in order to clear confusion between table level and row level
locks.

but some table locks are called row

share or row exclusive even if they
do not lock any rows. Those row
exclusive locks are not so exclusive
because they can be acquired by
several sessions concurrently on
the same resource. Those row exclusive locks can also be called sub
exclusive locks, and there is a share

Lock Modes
Basically, a resource can be locked
in two modes: Exclusive (to prevent
any concurrent access) or Share (to
prevent only exclusive access). But
Oracle has defined 6 modes (including
the no lock mode) and each one has

several names. Table 1 - Lock mode

names shows the 6 lock modes, with
their numbers and different names that
are we can find in v$ views, in the documentation, in trace files, in OEM

sub exclusive lock mode as well

Dont panic, we will take those

Mode 1:

Null

NL

Mode 2: SS

RS

Row S

Row Share

SubShare

Intended Share (IS)

terms one by one and you will un-

Mode 3: SX

RX

Row X

Row Exclusive

SubExclusive

Intended Exclusive (IX)

derstand everything. You will even

Mode 4: S

be able to remember easily the lock

Mode 5: SSX SRX S/Row X

compatibility matrix just because

you will understand the meanings of
lock modes.

SOUG Newsletter 1/2013

Mode 6: X

Share

S
Share Row Exclusive Share SubExclusive

Exclusive

Table 1 - Lock mode names

C
X

TIPS&TECHNIQUES
And when we look at the wait events,
from V$SESSION, or from the Blocking
Sessions screen of Entreprise Manager, we dont have those names but a
number:
P1TEXT
TM mode 1:

P1

name/mode 1414332417

P1RAW
544D0001

TM mode 2: name/mode 1414332418 544D0002

TM mode 3:

name/mode 1414332419 544D0003

TM mode 4:

name/mode 1414332420 544D0004

TM mode 5:

name/mode 1414332421 544D0005

TM mode 6:

name/mode 1414332422 544D0006

TX mode 4:

name/mode 1415053316 54580004

TX mode 6:

name/mode 1415053318 54580006

lock), then we must wait to see if

his change is committed or not. Or
we may choose not to wait and
cancel our reading operation.
Note that on Oracle, locking in share mode is required
only when reading the current
version of data. A query (such
as a select without the for update clause) can read a consistent version of data without
any locks.

Table 2 - enqueue wait event parameters

How to remember all those names

and numbers without confusion? And
guess the DML operations that has
cause them? And the compatibility matrix that shows what is allowed and
what is blocked by a lock (Table 3 Lock compatibility matrix)?
It is possible: we will explain the
meaning of Share and Exclusive, as
well as the meaning of Row or Sub or
Intended, and everything will be clear.

Share / Exclusive
An exclusive lock (X) disallows to
share a resource: it prevents another
session to acquire a share lock (S) or
an exclusive lock (X) on the same resource.
A share lock (S) allows sharing a
resource: multiple sessions can acquire a share lock (S) on the same resource. But it prevents another session
to acquire an exclusive lock (X) on the
same resource. When reading data, we
usually want to prevent concurrent
writes, so we need a share access on it.
Here we have the basic elements to
understand and remember the compatibility matrix: For X and S locks, the
matrix is: S/S are compatible but S/X,
and X/X are not compatible.
The general idea behind X (exclusive) and S (share) is that
When we need to write data, we
acquire an exclusive lock.
When we need to read the data
and make sure that no one is writing concurrently, then we acquire a
share lock. If someone is already
updating the data (holding an X

Sub / Row
We have seen that there are sometimes two names and two abbreviations for the same mode: Sub (S) and
Row (R).
Lets focus on table locks. The resource locked by Share (S) and Exclusive (X) is a table. And a table is made
of rows. Oracle has lock modes that
can be acquired on a resource, but that
concern only a subpart of the locked
resource. If the resource is a table, then
the subparts are rows.
For example, if we update one or
more records in a table (insert, update,
or delete), we are writing so we need an
exclusive lock. But we are not writing
on the whole table. We do not need to
lock the whole table in exclusive mode.
So we will acquire a lock that concerns
only some rows. This is the Row X lock
(Row Exclusive). Similarly, if we want to
acquire a lock for blocking reads (reading data and prevent concurrent modification on what we read), as the select
for update did before version 9i, then
rather than acquiring a Share lock on
whole table we can acquire a Row S
(Row Share) lock.
We are at table level but we acquire
Row S and Row X locks for row modification.
Here is the reason for the dual naming Sub/Row: in the case of a table
lock, the subparts are Rows, so we can
talk about Row S (RS) and Row X (RX).
But in the general case, for a lock acquired for a Subpart of a resource, the
name is Sub S (Sub Share) and Sub X
(Sub Exclusive).
And even for a table lock, if the table is partitioned, then an exclusive

19

lock X on a partition will acquire a Sub

X on the table as well (the subpart here
is the partition, so there is no reason to
use Row X naming here).
In this document, we will continue
by reasoning on table locks, and we will
use Row naming rather than the Sub
naming. But the actual reason is that I
prefer to avoid the confusion since the
abbreviation of Sub (S) is the same as
the one for Share

Table level /
Row level
Here we have been talking about
locks acquired at table level (TM locks)
even if they concern subparts.
Besides that, the DML operations
(INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE or SELECT
FOR UPDATE) have to acquire locks at
row level. Two sessions can concurrently modify rows in the same table if
they do not touch the same row. And
we have seen that this requires a TMRX (Row-X) lock on the table. However,
in addition to that table level lock,
each session will also acquire a lock on
the row itself: within the block, the row
will have a lock flag, which is a pointer
to the ITL entry, which identifies the
transaction that has updated the row.
It is a row level lock but the resource that is locked is actually the
transaction, which is the reason why it
is a called a TX lock. A transaction sees
that a row is locked by another transaction, and then it will request a lock on
the transaction that locked the rows waiting for end of that transaction.
That TX lock is always exclusive:
Oracle did not implement share lock at
the record level (Other RDBMS needs it
for transaction isolation, but Oracle
uses multi versioning for that).
So, we have table locks that concern the whole table (TM locks in mode
S and X) and we have row level locks
(TX locks).
Then what is the reason for table
level row locks (TM locks in mode
Row-S and Row-X) ?
A table can have millions of rows.
When we need a share lock on the table (TM-Share), it would not be efficient
to scan all the table rows in order to see
if there are some rows that are locked.
In the other way, acquiring an exclusive
lock at table level when we need to update only few rows would be disastrous
for concurrency and scalability.

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TIPS&TECHNIQUES

This is where Sub table locks are

used: a transaction that has the intention to modify some rows will first acquire a Row X lock on the table, without
having to check all rows. This intention
explains the third name that we can find
less frequently for Sub/Row locks:
Intended Share (IS) and Intended eXclusive (IX).
Now we can understand that two
sessions can acquire an RX lock on the
same table, even if X means exclusive. Remember that we are talking
about table level locks, even if some of
them have the row term in their names.
At this level two transactions can
modify rows in the same table. Both
can acquire a TM lock in Row X mode
(RX), because both can have the intention to modify rows.

Read / Write
We have seen that the general idea
is that an exclusive lock (X) is acquired
when you are writing and a share lock
(S) is acquired when you are reading
and want that read to prevent concurrent writes.
In the same way, a Sub eXclusive
lock (RX or SX) is acquired when you
have the intention to write a subpart,
and a Sub Share lock (RS or SS) is acquired when you have the intention to
do a blocking reads on a subpart.
But in Oracle, we have to go further:
Oracle performs non blocking reads by
default, meaning that you can read
consistent data without having to block
concurrent writes (See Tom Kyte link
below). Those reads are known as
query mode or consistent read.
They do not lock the data because they
do not have to read the current version
of the blocks. If there is concurrent
writes on the block, they build a previous version of it by applying undo
information.
When you want to do a blocking
read, you use a select for update
which locks the row without updating it
(event if it is often done with the goal to
update it as the name suggests). Until
9i, the select for update acquired a
share lock (Row-S), which is still in the
idea of reading. But from 9i, an exclusive lock is acquired: the select for update has the same locking behavior
than an update. Besides that, at row
level, the select for update lock
has always been an exclusive TX lock.

SOUG Newsletter 1/2013

So we can stay in the idea that

share is for reading and exclusive is
for writing. But then we must remember
that in Oracle the non blocking reads
do not need to acquire any lock, and
that a select for udpate is actually
considered as writing. After all, it generates redo and undo, and it cannot be
done on a read only database.
The DDL (Data Definition Language)
also acquires table locks (TM). An
alter table move, for example, will
put an X lock on the table: it writes into
the table and must prevent blocking
reads (S,RS) and writes (X,RX). A create index, however, does not modify
the table, but it has to read data while
there is no concurrent modifications
during the index creation, in order to
have the current version of data, thus it
locks the table in S mode.
Referential integrity also acquires
TM locks. For example, the common issue with unindexed foreign keys leads
to S locks on child table when you issue a delete, or update on the key, on
the parent table. This is because without an index, Oracle has no single lower level resource to lock in order to prevent a concurrent insert that can violate
the referential integrity. When the foreign key columns are the leading columns in a regular index, then the first
index entry with the parent value can
be used as a single resource and
locked with a row level TX lock.
And what if referential integrity has
an on delete cascade ? In addition
to the S mode, there is the intention to
update rows in the child table, as with
Row X (RX) mode. This is where the
share row exclusive (SRX) occurs:
S+RX=SRX.

Table operations
SELECT, without a for update, is
a non blocking read, so it does not acquire any lock in Oracle. You can even
drop a table while another session is
reading it.
INSERT, UPDATE, DELETE, have
the intention to write on some rows, so
they acquires a Row X mode table lock
(in addition to the row level TX locks).
SELECT FOR UPDATE is doing
blocking reads on some rows, so it acquired a Row S before 9i. But now it
has the same behavior as an update
and acquires a Row X.
DML with referential integrity
need additional locks. For example,
when you insert into a child table, then
the existence of the parent must be
checked with a blocking read. If it were
not the case, the parent could be deleted before we commit our transaction
and integrity would be violated. This is
similar to SELECT FOR UPDATE and
acquires a Row X on the parent (it was
Row S before 9i). In the other way, deleting a parent row or changing its referenced values (usually the primary
key) need to prevent a concurrent insert on the child that could reference
the deleted parent. This is a Row X
(Row S before 11g) if child has an index
that can have a row level lock on it for
the parent value. If there is no index
that starts with the foreign key, then a
Share lock is acquired during the delete
statement, blocking any DML.
If the referential integrity has an ON
DELETE CASCADE, then the Share
lock requested by the unindexed foreign keys become a Share Row Exclusive one as it adds the Row-X from the
delete.
A direct path INSERT has to prevent any concurrent modification, thus
it acquires an X lock on the table. If it is
inserted into a specific partition (naming the partition with the table name),
then the table has a Sub-X lock for the
intention to write on a subpart, and the
partition has an X lock.
All those locks are acquired until the
end of the transaction (commit or rollback) at the exception of the TM-Share
of non-indexed foreign keys that is released faster.
DDL can acquire locks, for the
whole operation or for only a short period (and then it can be considered as
an online operation).

TIPS&TECHNIQUES
When you need to achieve repeatable reads (to avoid phantom reads
concurrent inserts that would change
your result set) then you cannot rely on
row level locks (TX) for an obvious reason: you cannot lock a row that do not
exists yet (there is no range lock in
Oracle). Then you need to lock the
whole table and this is done with a
Share lock. For example, if you create
an index, or rebuild it without the online
option, the DDL acquires a TM-Share
lock on the table.
And when a DDL need exclusive
write access, such an ALTER TABLE
MOVE, a TM-X mode lock is acquired.
Those are just examples. There are
many situations that we cannot explain
here and that change with versions.
But thinking about which the set of
data that is written, and which one
need to be read with blocking reads,
will help you to understand what happens.
In addition to that, you can acquire
table locks with the LOCK TABLE statement and following modes: ROW
SHARE, ROW EXCLUSIVE, SHARE,
SHARE ROW EXCLUSIVE, EXCLUSIVE.
You think there are already too
many synonyms for Row-S, Sub-S
etc.? Here is another one: you can acquire it with LOCK TABLE IN SHARE
UPDATE MODE

21

Compatibility Matrix
The whole reason for all those lock
modes is to allow or disallow (or serialize) concurrent access on a resource.
So we need to know which one are
compatible or not.
The lock compatibility matrix shows
that.

Compatible locks?
Row-S (RS)

Row-S
(RS)

Row-X
(RX)

Share
(S)

S/Row-X Exclusive
(SRX)
(X)

Row-X (RX)
Share (S)
S/Row-X (SRX)
Exclusive (X)

Table 3 - Lock compatibility matrix

Did you ever read and try to remember that compatibility matrix? Now that
we understand the meaning of each
mode, it can be easier. Lets build it
from the definitions we have seen
above.
We already have seen the compatibility about X and S: by definition,
the matrix shows that S/S are compatible but S/X and X/X are not.
About subparts, this is different.
Modifying a few rows in a table does
not prevent another session to modify
some (other) rows in the same table.
The row by row conflict is managed by
the row level locks (TX) but here we are
talking about table locks (TM). Therefore the matrix shows that RS/RS, RX/
RX, RS/RX are compatible.
But among resources and sub
resources, there may be conflict, and
this is the reason for Sub locks: If the

entire table has an exclusive lock (X)

acquired by another session, then it is
not possible to intend a row modification (RX). And if there is an exclusive
lock for some rows (RX) then it prevents to acquire a share lock on the
table (S). For that reason, the matrix
shows that X/RX, X/RS and S/RX not
compatible. But S/RS are both sharable, so they are compatible.
And then about Share Row eXclusive (SRX) which is actually a combination of S and RX: the table has a share
lock, and a subset has an exclusive
lock.
Because X or RX are not
compatible with the S in SRX, then X/
SRX and RX/SRX are not compatible.
And because S (as well as the
S in SRX) is not compatible with the RX
in SRX, then S/SRX and SRX/SRX are
not compatible either. But there is no
conflict with RS/SRX as RS is compatible with S as well as with RX.

SOUG Newsletter 1/2013

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Dictionary Views
This is enough theory. We will now check how to see
locks in our Oracle instance.
Lets do a DML operation and see which information can
be gathered from dictionary views.
SESSION1> select sid from v$mystat where rownum=1;
SID
---------13
SESSION1> update test set dummy='Y';
1 row updated.

So Im in session 13 and I updated one row in the TEST table.

DBA_LOCKS shows all locks:
SESSION1> select * from dba_locks where session_id=13;
SESSION_ID LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD MODE_REQUESTED LOCK_ID1
---------- ----------------- -------------- -------13 DML
Row-X (SX) None
723764
13 Transaction Exclusive None
524303

LOCK_ID2 LAST_CONVERT BLOCKING_OTHERS

-------- ------------ --------------0
1 Not Blocking
43037
1 Not Blocking

Our transaction is holding two locks:

One transaction lock (TX) in exclusive mode that was
acquired when our transaction started. LOCK_ID1 and
LOCK_ID2 identifies the transaction (USN/SLOT/SQN
are encoded into 2 integers)
One table level lock (DML) in Row X (SX) mode acquired
by the update statement as it has the intention to modify
rows. LOCK_ID1 is the object id of the table.
LAST_CONVERT shows that the transaction started 1
second ago and that the UPDATE statement started 1
second ago as well. We will see the exact time when
locks are acquired later.
DBA_DML_LOCKS shows TM locks only:
SESSION1> select * from dba_dml_locks where session_id=13;
SESSION_ID LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD MODE_REQUESTED LOCK_ID1 LOCK_ID2 LAST_CONVERT BLOCKING_OTHERS
---------- ----------------- -------------- -------- ---------------------- --------------13 E_FRANCK TEST Row-X (SX)
None
1 Not Blocking

Here the object_id has been converted into owner and

object_name.If we check in DBA_OBJECTS, the OBJECT_ID
for E_FRANCK.TEST is 723764 as shows the LOCK_ID1 as
given by DBA_LOCKS.
V$LOCKED_OBJECTS shows TM locks as well:
SESSION1> select * from v$locked_object where session_id=13;
XIDUSN XIDSLOT XIDSQN OBJECT_ID SESSION_ID ORACLE_USERNAME OS_USER_NAME PROCESS LOCKED_MODE
------ ------- ------ --------- ---------- --------------- ------------ ------- ----------8
15
43037
723764
13 E_FRANCK
e_FRANCK
6674
3

Here we have additional information:

The transaction identification
(XIDUSN,XIDSLOT,XIDSQN). Look at lock ID1 and ID2
for TX lock:LOCK_ID1= XIDUSN*65536+XIDSLOT and
LOCK_ID2=XIDSQN
That means that the TX and TM locks we see are held by
the same transaction.
We have the Oracle username and OS username and
process ID as well the lock mode uses the mode number.
Mode 3 is for Row X.
These are our session locks. Now we open another session and attempt to lock the TEST table in S mode:

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TIPS&TECHNIQUES

23

SESSION1> select sid from v$mystat where rownum=1;

SID
---------47
SESSION2> lock table test in share mode;

That second session (SID 47) is now waiting and we will

open a third session to check those blocking locks.
SQL> select * from dba_locks where session_id=13;
SESSION_I LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD MODE_REQUESTED LOCK_ID1
--------- ------------------ -------------- -------13
DML
Row-X (SX) None
723764
13
Transaction Exclusive None
524303

LOCK_ID2 LAST_CONVERT BLOCKING_OTHERS

-------- ------------ --------------0
10 Blocking
43037
10 Not Blocking

Our first session (SID 13) still have the same locks, but we
know that the DML lock is blocking another session.
SESSION_I
--------13
13

LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD
--------- ---------DML
Row-X (SX)
Transaction Exclusive

MODE_REQUESTED LOCK_ID1
-------------- -------None
723764
None
524303

LOCK_ID2
-------0
43037

LAST_CONVERT BLOCKING_OTHERS
------------ ------------10 Blocking
10 Not Blocking

Our second session (SID 47 that did the lock statement)

has not acquired (held) any lock yet. It is waiting to acquire
the Share mode lock on the table (object_id 723724)
DBA_BLOCKERS shows which sessions are blocking another session:
SESSION1> select * from dba_blockers;
HOLDING_SESSION
--------------13

DBA_WAITERS has more information about the waiting sessions

SESSION1> select * from dba_waiters;
WAITING_SESSION HOLDING_SESSION LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD
MODE_REQUESTED
LOCK_ID1
LOCK_ID2
--------------- --------------- ------------ ---------------- ---------------- ---------- ---------47
13 DML
Row-X (SX)
Share
723764
0

Second session (SID 47) that requested TM lock in Share

mode on TEST table (object_id 723764 ) is waiting for session
13 that holds Row X lock mode on that table.
UTLLOCKT.SQL (script provided in ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin) shows it in formatted way so that we can see
easily the waiters hierarchy:
SQL>@ ?/rdbms/admin/utllockt.sql
WAITING_SESSION LOCK_TYPE
--------------- ----------------13
None
47
DML

MODE_REQUESTED MODE_HELD
-------------- -------------

LOCK_ID1
----------------

LOCK_ID2
---------------

Share

723764

Row-X (SX)

V$SESSION_WAITS shows all current wait events. We are

interested in enqueues:
SQL> select * from v$session_wait where event like enq%;
SID EVENT
P1TEXT
P1RAW
P2TEXT
P2 SECONDS_IN_WAIT
---------- -------------------- ---------- ---------------- ---------- ---------- --------------47 enq: TM - contention name|mode 00000000544D0004 object #
723764 802

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Here we see that second session session (SID 47) is currently waiting on a TM lock (enqueue). It has been waiting for
802 seconds (I ran that query a few minutes later). P2 is the
object_id (object #) and P1 is the lock type and mode
(name|mode) encoded in hexadecimal:544Dis the ascii code
for TM and4is the lock mode (Share). So we can have all
information from waits events: session 47 is waiting for 802
seconds to acquire a TM lock in mode S on table TEST.
This is where the Table 2 - enqueue wait event parameters
is useful.
V$SESSION_EVENT shows wait event statistics cumulated
for the sessions.
SQL> select * from v$session_wait where event like enq%;
SID
EVENT
TOTAL_WAITS TOTAL_TIMEOUTS
---------- -------------------- ----------- -------------47 enq: TM - contention
296
281

TIME_WAITED
----------86490

AVERAGE_WAIT MAX_WAIT
------------ --------292.2
295

We see our TM lock on which the session has been waiting 86490 centiseconds (865 seconds, I ran that query one
minute after the previous one). I know that there were only
one request for that lock, but 296 enqueue wait have been
accounted for it. This is because waiting for a lock is not done
with only one wait. The wait times out after 3 seconds (thats
why you see the average wait time about 300 centiseconds,
and that you have a number of timeouts that reaches the
number if waits). This is the way it works: after 3 seconds
waiting, the process takes control again, checks if it is not in
a deadlock situation, and then waits another 3 seconds.

Row level locks again, intention

and transactions
We have seen that from DBA_LOCKS the TM lock and the
TX lock arrived at the same time because we started our
transaction with the update statement. In truth, the TM lock
was acquired before the TX lock because:
TM lock is at table level, it is acquired as soon as the
update is executed and before any rows have been read.
TX lock is at row level. Even if the resource is the transaction, it is acquired when modifying a row
Lets prove that. We run the update again, but now we
update no rows:
SESSION1> select sid from v$mystat where rownum=1;
SID
---------18
SESSION1> update test set dummy=Y where 0 = 1;
0 row updated.

So Im in session 18 and I ran an update that has not updated any rows.
SESSION1> select * from dba_locks where session_id=18;
SESSION_ID LOCK_TYPE
MODE_HELD
MODE_REQUESTED LOCK_ID1 LOCK_ID2 LAST_CONVERT BLOCKING_OTHERS
---------- ------------ ------------ -------------- -------- -------- ------------ --------------18 DML Row-X (SX)
None
723764
0
1 Not Blocking

Even if we touched no rows, the Row X was acquired by

the update execution just because of our intention to update

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TIPS&TECHNIQUES

25

rows. But we actually update no rows so there is no TX lock

yet. We have no TX lock yet, but we know we are in a transaction because our TM lock is related with a transaction (and
will be released only at commit or rollback). Any doubt? Lets
check V$LOCKED_OBJECT which has the transaction identification (USN/SLOT/SQN) for my TM lock.
SESSION1> select * from v$locked_object where session_id=13;
XIDUSN
XIDSLOT
XIDSQN OBJECT_ID SESSION_ID ORACLE_USERNAME OS_USER_NAME PROCESS LOCKED_MODE
--------- --------- --------- --------- ---------- --------------- ------------- ------- ----------0
0
0 723764
18 E_FRANCK
e_FRANCK
11210
3

Our transaction has no USN/SLOT/SQL because it has no

entry in the undo segment transaction table yet (because no
row modification happened yet). And if we check
V$TRANSACTION, there is no rows for our transaction. However, V$SESSION has a transaction address in TADDR for
our session. What does that mean? We are in a transaction
(no doubt about that, we did an update and that is done within a transaction). Our transaction has an address, but it has
no entry in the transaction table. So, the TX lock resource is
a transaction table entry rather than a transaction, and
V$TRANSACTION shows transaction entries rather than
transactions.
So, back to our TM lock. We did not write anything, but
our intention to write to TEST table is marked with the Row X
lock and will remain until the end of our transaction.

Deadlock graph
When locks are in a deadlock situation, Oracle will kill one
session and dump the information in the session tracefile. If
you have frequent deadlocks for table locks, that must be
fixed in the application design. But you need to know what
happened, and you have to read the dump file.
Here is an example where each session was waiting on
the other:
Deadlock graph:
Resource Name
TM-000215da-00000000
TM-000215d9-00000000

---------Blocker(s)-------- ---------Waiter(s)--------process session holds waits process session holds waits

49
172
SX
38
43
S
38
43
SX
49
172
S

Same information, but once again presented differently.

We see the lock type (TM) followed by the lock resource
identification in hexadecimal. Its the same as LOCK_ID1 and
LOCK_ID2 from DBA_LOCKS. For TM locks, this is the object_id of the table (or index) that you can get from DBA_OBJECTS after converting it from hexadecimal. Those are the
215da and 215d9 here.
Then the lock modes are the abbreviations we can find on
Table 1 - Lock mode names.
So on TABLE1 (215da) the session 172 holds a Row-X
(SX) lock and the session 43 is waiting to acquire a Share (S)
lock.
And on TABLE2 (215d9) the session 43 holds a Row-X
(SX) lock and the session 172 is waiting to acquire a Share (S)
lock.

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26

TIPS&TECHNIQUES

Note that we have all information about the requested

lock, because the sessions were waiting on them at that time,
so we can know which statement was executing. But we
dont have any information about the locks that was acquired
before, except the table name and the lock mode. This is because the lock may have been acquired long before that
dump file was written.

Event 10704
trace enqueues
If you want to go further, and have a trace for each lock
that is acquired and released by a session, then you can set
the event 10704 at least in level 2. In the trace file you will be
interested mainly by lines such as:

and
ksqrcl: TM,16ae5,0

The first one is for the Get Lock: here a table lock (TM)
lock is acquired for object id 16ae5 in Row-X (3)
The second one shows when the lock was released.
You can also see lock conversion from one mode to another with:
ksqcnv TM-00016ae5-00000000 mode=5 timeout=21474836

But of course, this is to be used on small test cases as it

can be very verbose.

References
Oracle Documentation

Oracle Database Concepts DML locks

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/server.112/e10713/consist.

Thomas Kyte

Consistent Reads

htm#CNCPT1340
http://asktom.oracle.com/pls/apex/f?p=100:11:0::::P11_QUESTION_

Kyle Hailey

Enqueue waits: Locks

ID:27330770500351
http://www.perfvision.com/papers/09_enqueues.ppt

Oracle Comments

DBMS_LOCK package definition

ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin/dbmslock.sql

SMS
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SOUG Newsletter 1/2013

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TIPS&TECHNIQUES

27

Blocking locks in
Enterprise Manager
Locked sessions are easily shown in
Entreprise Manager from their enqueue
wait event.
They are shown in red in the Top Activity chart (Figure 1 OEM Performance / Top Activity)
And the equivalent to utllockt.sql is
in the Blocking Sessions screen (Figure
2 OEM 12c Performance - Blocking
Sessions).
However, this is where it is good to
know the decimal values for P1 that we
have in Table 2 - enqueue wait event parameters, so that we can easily recognize TM-Share when we see the value
1414332420 and check for un-indexed
foreign keys.
Figure 1
OEM Performance / Top Activity

Figure 2
OEM 12c Performance - Blocking Sessions

Contact
Trivadis SA
Franck Pachot
E-Mail:
[email protected]

SOUG Newsletter 1/2013