PostgreSQL 8.3.1 Documentation
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# 18.11. Lock Management

`deadlock_timeout` (`integer`)

  This is the amount of time, in milliseconds, to wait on a lock before checking to see if there is a deadlock condition. The check for deadlock is relatively slow, so the server doesn't run it every time it waits for a lock. We optimistically assume that deadlocks are not common in production applications and just wait on the lock for a while before starting the check for a deadlock. Increasing this value reduces the amount of time wasted in needless deadlock checks, but slows down reporting of real deadlock errors. The default is one second (`1s`), which is probably about the smallest value you would want in practice. On a heavily loaded server you might want to raise it. Ideally the setting should exceed your typical transaction time, so as to improve the odds that a lock will be released before the waiter decides to check for deadlock.

  When log_lock_waits is set, this parameter also determines the length of time to wait before a log message is issued about the lock wait. If you are trying to investigate locking delays you might want to set a shorter than normal `deadlock_timeout`.

`max_locks_per_transaction` (`integer`)

  The shared lock table is created to track locks on `max_locks_per_transaction` * (max_connections + max_prepared_transactions) objects (e.g. tables); hence, no more than this many distinct objects can be locked at any one time. This parameter controls the average number of object locks allocated for each transaction; individual transactions can lock more objects as long as the locks of all transactions fit in the lock table. This is not the number of rows that can be locked; that value is unlimited. The default, 64, has historically proven sufficient, but you might need to raise this value if you have clients that touch many different tables in a single transaction. This parameter can only be set at server start.

  Increasing this parameter might cause PostgreSQL to request more System V shared memory than your operating system's default configuration allows. See Section 17.4.1 for information on how to adjust those parameters, if necessary.

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