Explicit table and advisory locking

Explicit table and advisory locking

Explicit table locking and advisory locking are two different techniques used in MySQLDB to control concurrent access to shared resources.

Explicit table locking involves using the LOCK TABLES statement to lock one or more tables, preventing other sessions from modifying them until the lock is released. This type of locking is useful when you need to ensure that only one session at a time can modify a specific table. However, it can also lead to contention and deadlocks if not used carefully.

On the other hand, advisory locking involves using the GET_LOCK() and RELEASE_LOCK() functions to obtain and release named locks. Unlike explicit table locking, advisory locking does not actually lock any database object, but rather uses a user-defined lock name to synchronize access to a shared resource. This type of locking is useful when you need to coordinate access to a shared resource that cannot be locked explicitly, such as a file or a network socket.

In general, advisory locking is more flexible and lightweight than explicit table locking, but requires careful application design to ensure that the locking semantics are correctly implemented. On the other hand, explicit table locking provides stronger guarantees about the consistency of the data, but can lead to performance issues and contention if not used judiciously.

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