Lock timeout

Hi,
Does anybody know how I specify a 'lock wait timeout' value for Oracle 8i (Solaris). All I want to do is say that whenever I need a lock and there is a conflicting lock, that I only want to wait for 15 seconds, for example. There used to be an init parameter
'distributed_lock_timeout', but this seems to have been obsoleted in 8i.

The scenarion I am trying to deal with is simply the case where a transaction is started by some GUI client and he goes off to get a coffee. In the meantime someone else trys to lock a row which the first (coffee drinking) user has locked. I would like the second user to get a
'lock timeout' exception.

This seems like a fairly fundamental DB thing that I am having considerable difficulty finding in the Oracle documantation. I am at the point of admitting to stupidity (maybe its true).

Thanks in advance for any help,
Terry Stewart Received on Wed Dec 01 1999 - 11:33:13 CST