[DERBY-3093] Intermittent transaction failure caused by internal duplicate savepoint name for triggers

• Type: Bug
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Fixed
• Affects Version/s: 10.1.3.1, 10.2.2.0, 10.3.1.4
• Fix Version/s: 10.1.3.2, 10.2.2.1, 10.3.2.1, 10.4.1.3
• Component/s: SQL
• Environment: Java 1.6.0_02
• Assignee: James F. Adams
• Reporter: Jim Newsham
• Created: 28/Sep/07 21:20
• Updated: 21/Jan/11 17:50
• Resolved: 26/Oct/07 01:20

Description

While running our app overnight, performing some intensive database operations (primarily deletes), we experienced a transaction failure, with error message "A SAVEPOINT with the passed name already exists in the current transaction". This failure appears to be very intermittent, as I've run the same operation successfully for hours and hours without failure. Some more information:

1. I see that there are four JIRA issues which report the same message (DERBY-2773, DERBY-1457, DERBY-2808, DERBY-2804). I am not sure to what extent if any, the problem I experienced is related to these issues.

• At least three of the above JIRA issues are related to triggers. Our transaction failure occurred while performing a delete in a table which has delete triggers.
• We aren't using savepoints explicitly. Of course, it can be seen in the stack trace that the trigger operation is setting a savepoint.
• One of the JIRA issues mentions exceeding maximum depth of nested triggers. Not sure what a nested trigger is, but the trigger we are performing should not (in theory) cause another trigger event.

2. Here's the stack trace:

Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: A SAVEPOINT with the passed name already exists in the current transaction.
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.SQLExceptionFactory40.getSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.Util.generateCsSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.wrapInSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.ConnectionChild.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedStatement.executeStatement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedPreparedStatement.executeStatement(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedPreparedStatement.executeUpdate(Unknown Source)
at com.referentia.sdf.monitor.samplebase.derby.DerbySampleBase$3.perform(DerbySampleBase.java:682)
at com.referentia.sdf.monitor.samplebase.derby.DerbySampleBase.performInTransaction(DerbySampleBase.java:2747)
... 7 more
Caused by: java.sql.SQLException: A SAVEPOINT with the passed name already exists in the current transaction.
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.SQLExceptionFactory.getSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.SQLExceptionFactory40.wrapArgsForTransportAcrossDRDA(Unknown Source)
... 18 more
Caused by: ERROR 3B501: A SAVEPOINT with the passed name already exists in the current transaction.
at org.apache.derby.iapi.error.StandardException.newException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.store.raw.xact.Xact.setSavePoint(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.store.access.RAMTransaction.setSavePoint(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.conn.GenericStatementContext.setSavePoint(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.GenericPreparedStatement.execute(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.execute.GenericTriggerExecutor.executeSPS(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.execute.RowTriggerExecutor.fireTrigger(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.execute.TriggerEventActivator.notifyEvent(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.execute.DeleteResultSet.fireAfterTriggers(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.execute.DeleteResultSet.open(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.sql.GenericPreparedStatement.execute(Unknown Source)
... 12 more

3. Here are the relevant tables and triggers. We have different tables for different "sample" data types in our application (currently int, long, float, double, Boolean, string). I have shown the int_sample table; the other tables are identical but have a different data type for the value field.

Sample records are first class; time records are second class - they only exist to support sample records. When there are no remaining sample records for a given time record, the time record can be removed. It is the job of the trigger to perform this cleanup: when a record is deleted from any of the sample tables, the time record corresponding to *_sample.fk_time_id is deleted only if there are no remaining records in any of the sample tables which have the same fk_time_id. So although there are cascading deletes (deleting a time record deletes all of its samples), the trigger should not recurse because the trigger only deletes when there are no associated records.

create table time (
id int not null generated always as identity,
time timestamp not null,

constraint time_pk primary key (id),
constraint time_unique unique (time)
);

create table int_sample (
fk_band_id int not null,
fk_time_id int not null,
value int not null,

constraint int_sample_pk primary key (fk_band_id, fk_time_id),
constraint int_sample_fk_band foreign key (fk_band_id) references band (id) on delete cascade,
constraint int_sample_fk_time foreign key (fk_time_id) references time (id) on delete cascade
);

create trigger cascade_delete_unused_time_for_int_sample_trigger
after delete on int_sample
referencing old as oldrow
for each row
delete from time where
time.id = oldrow.fk_time_id
and id not in (select fk_time_id from int_sample)
and id not in (select fk_time_id from long_sample)
and id not in (select fk_time_id from float_sample)
and id not in (select fk_time_id from double_sample)
and id not in (select fk_time_id from boolean_sample)
and id not in (select fk_time_id from string_sample);

4. Invocation. This is very rough pseudocode focusing on the core logic. In reality, there's a lot more code, but I'm doing the usual stuff, such as using prepared statements, and closing all resources when done. The key thing is that I'm using two statements in a nested fashion; in the outer statement, I iterate over records in the time table, and in the inner loop I use a second statement to delete records in one of the sample tables. I can provide the actual code if desired.

deleteSamples(int bandId, String sampleTable, Object someQueryCriteria) {
within transaction {
create stmt1 iterating over time ids in time table (restricted by someQueryCriteria)
for (time_id in stmt1)

{ PreparedStatement stmt2 = conn.prepareStatement(String.format( "delete from %s where fk_band_id = ? and fk_time_id = ?", sampleTable)); set stmt2 parameters and executeUpdate() }

}
}

Issue Links

• is related to: DERBY-2773 testGrantRevokeDDL(org.apache.derbyTesting.functionTests.tests.lang.GrantRevokeDDLTest) throws java.sql.SQLException: The exception 'java.sql.SQLException: A SAVEPOINT with the passed name already exists in the current transaction.'
• is related to: DERBY-2804 predicatesIntoViews.sql fails (intermittently?) with SAVEPOINT error w/ IBM 15 on Linux.
• is related to: DERBY-2808 triggerRecursion.sql and triggerGeneral.sql intermittently fail with SAVEPOINT error.