Thread: Question about isolation level documentation

Question about isolation level documentation

From
Elliot S
Date:
Is there a discussion somewhere regarding this line from the docs on
transaction isolation: "When you select the level Read Uncommitted you
really get Read Committed, and phantom reads are not possible in
the PostgreSQL implementation of Repeatable Read"? I get that RU is the
same as RC and why that is so, but why is RR mentioned in this sentence
and more importantly why does it claim phantom reads aren't possible in
RR despite the table above this paragraph clearly stating they are? It
looks like a documentation issue associated with the true serialization
mode introduced in 9.1.


Re: Question about isolation level documentation

From
Alvaro Herrera
Date:
Elliot S wrote:
> Is there a discussion somewhere regarding this line from the docs on
> transaction isolation: "When you select the level Read Uncommitted
> you really get Read Committed, and phantom reads are not possible in
> the PostgreSQL implementation of Repeatable Read"? I get that RU is
> the same as RC and why that is so, but why is RR mentioned in this
> sentence and more importantly why does it claim phantom reads aren't
> possible in RR despite the table above this paragraph clearly
> stating they are? It looks like a documentation issue associated
> with the true serialization mode introduced in 9.1.

I read that as saying that even though the standard defines repeatable
read as possibly having phantom reads, they don't occur in Postgres.

--
Álvaro Herrera                http://www.2ndQuadrant.com/
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training & Services


Re: Question about isolation level documentation

From
Elliot S
Date:
On 04/08/2014 04:09 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Elliot S wrote:
>> Is there a discussion somewhere regarding this line from the docs on
>> transaction isolation: "When you select the level Read Uncommitted
>> you really get Read Committed, and phantom reads are not possible in
>> the PostgreSQL implementation of Repeatable Read"? I get that RU is
>> the same as RC and why that is so, but why is RR mentioned in this
>> sentence and more importantly why does it claim phantom reads aren't
>> possible in RR despite the table above this paragraph clearly
>> stating they are? It looks like a documentation issue associated
>> with the true serialization mode introduced in 9.1.
> I read that as saying that even though the standard defines repeatable
> read as possibly having phantom reads, they don't occur in Postgres.
>
Oh - duh - that makes sense. Thanks. For some reason I couldn't make the
connection between the two clauses.