F.22.1. Overview

pgrowlocks(text) returns setof record
  

The parameter is the name of a table. The result is a set of records, with one row for each locked row within the table. The output columns are:

pgrowlocks takes AccessShareLock for the target table and reads each row one by one to collect the row locking information. This is not very speedy for a large table. Note that:

1. If the table as a whole is exclusive-locked by someone else, pgrowlocks will be blocked.

2. pgrowlocks is not guaranteed to produce a self-consistent snapshot. It is possible that a new row lock is taken, or an old lock is freed, during its execution.

pgrowlocks does not show the contents of locked rows. If you want to take a look at the row contents at the same time, you could do something like this:

SELECT * FROM accounts AS a, pgrowlocks('accounts') AS p
  WHERE p.locked_row = a.ctid;
  

Be aware however that (as of PostgreSQL 8.3) such a query will be very inefficient.

F.22.2. Sample output

test=# SELECT * FROM pgrowlocks('t1');
 locked_row | lock_type | locker | multi |   xids    |     pids
------------+-----------+--------+-------+-----------+---------------
      (0,1) | Shared    |     19 | t     | {804,805} | {29066,29068}
      (0,2) | Shared    |     19 | t     | {804,805} | {29066,29068}
      (0,3) | Exclusive |    804 | f     | {804}     | {29066}
      (0,4) | Exclusive |    804 | f     | {804}     | {29066}
(4 rows)
  

F.22.3. Author

Tatsuo Ishii