#include <db.h>

int
DB_ENV->txn_begin(DB_ENV *env,
    DB_TXN *parent, DB_TXN **tid, u_int32_t flags);

Description: DB_ENV->txn_begin

The DB_ENV->txn_begin method creates a new transaction in the environment and copies a pointer to a DB_TXN that uniquely identifies it into the memory to which tid refers. Calling the DB_TXN->abort, DB_TXN->commit or DB_TXN->discard methods will discard the returned handle.

Note: Transactions may only span threads if they do so serially; that is, each transaction must be active in only a single thread of control at a time. This restriction holds for parents of nested transactions as well; not two children may be concurrently active in more than one thread of control at any one time.

Note: Cursors may not span transactions; that is, each cursor must be opened and closed within a single transaction.

Note: A parent transaction may not issue any Berkeley DB operations -- except for DB_ENV->txn_begin, DB_TXN->abort and DB_TXN->commit -- while it has active child transactions (child transactions that have not yet been committed or aborted).

The DB_ENV->txn_begin method returns a non-zero error value on failure and 0 on success.

Parameters

flags

The flags parameter must be set to 0 or by bitwise inclusively OR'ing together one or more of the following values:

DB_DEGREE_2

This transaction will have degree 2 isolation. This provides for cursor stability but not repeatable reads. Data items which have been previously read by this transaction may be deleted or modified by other transactions before this transaction completes.

DB_DIRTY_READ

All read operations performed by the transaction may read modified but not yet committed data. Silently ignored if the DB_DIRTY_READ flag was not specified when the underlying database was opened.

DB_TXN_NOSYNC

Do not synchronously flush the log when this transaction commits or prepares. This means the transaction will exhibit the ACI (atomicity, consistency, and isolation) properties, but not D (durability); that is, database integrity will be maintained but it is possible that this transaction may be undone during recovery.

This behavior may be set for a Berkeley DB environment using the DB_ENV->set_flags method. Any value specified to this method overrides that setting.

DB_TXN_NOWAIT

If a lock is unavailable for any Berkeley DB operation performed in the context of this transaction, cause the operation to return DB_LOCK_DEADLOCK immediately instead of blocking on the lock.

DB_TXN_SYNC

Synchronously flush the log when this transaction commits or prepares. This means the transaction will exhibit all of the ACID (atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability) properties.

This behavior is the default for Berkeley DB environments unless the DB_TXN_NOSYNC flag was specified to the DB_ENV->set_flags method. Any value specified to this method overrides that setting.

parent

If the parent parameter is non-NULL, the new transaction will be a nested transaction, with the transaction indicated by parent as its parent. Transactions may be nested to any level. In the presence of distributed transactions and two-phase commit, only the parental transaction, that is a transaction without a parent specified, should be passed as an parameter to DB_TXN->prepare.

Errors

The DB_ENV->txn_begin method may fail and return one of the following non-zero errors:

ENOMEM

The maximum number of concurrent transactions has been reached.

Class

See Also