The DBMS_LOCK package

Hi to all,

I'm currently working on the implementation of a quite sofisticated locking strategy in one of my applications.

In order to be able to have full control over the locking mechanism i use the Oracle DBMS_LOCK package that allows me to manually lock und release using simple strings and handles.

Basically the DBMS_LOCK package works just fine but is has a few disatvantages and problems:

(1) DBMS_LOCK is quite slow especially when a lot of locks are used.
(2) DBMS_LOCK does not report who (sessions etc.) holds a lock.
(3) DBMS_LOCK has no monitor that allows to inspect the current locks.
(4) DBMS_LOCK has problmes when using more than 10000 locks.

I'm curretly evaluating to create my own LOCK packege that solves most or all of the problems i have with the Oracle implementation.

Is someone has any comments to DBMS_LOCK at all or has any experience in writing i similar package I'm grateful for any help.

Regards

Dieter Oberkofler
Director of Engineering

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