AUTONOMOUS_TRANSACTION Pragma

The AUTONOMOUS_TRANSACTION pragma marks a routine as autonomous; that is, independent of the main transaction.

In this context, a routine is one of these:

Schema-level (not nested) anonymous PL/SQL block
Standalone, packaged, or nested subprogram
Method of an ADT
Database trigger

When an autonomous routine is invoked, the main transaction is suspended. The autonomous transaction is fully independent of the main transaction: they share no locks, resources, or commit dependencies. The autonomous transaction does not affect the main transaction.

Changes made by an autonomous transaction become visible to other transactions when the autonomous transaction commits. They become visible to the main transaction when it resumes only if its isolation level is READ COMMITTED (the default).

Topics:

Syntax
Examples
Related Topics

Syntax

autonomous_transaction_pragma ::=

Description of the illustration auto_trans_pragma.gif

Usage

You cannot apply this pragma to an entire package, but you can apply it to each subprogram in a package.

You cannot apply this pragma to an entire ADT, but you can apply it to each method of an ADT.

Unlike an ordinary trigger, an autonomous trigger can contain transaction control statements, such as COMMIT and ROLLBACK, and can issue DDL statements (such as CREATE and DROP) through the EXECUTE IMMEDIATE statement.

In the main transaction, rolling back to a savepoint located before the call to the autonomous subprogram does not roll back the autonomous transaction. Remember, autonomous transactions are fully independent of the main transaction.

If an autonomous transaction attempts to access a resource held by the main transaction (which cannot resume until the autonomous routine exits), a deadlock can occur. The database raises an exception in the autonomous transaction, which is rolled back if the exception goes unhandled.

If you try to exit an active autonomous transaction without committing or rolling back, the database raises an exception. If the exception goes unhandled, or if the transaction ends because of some other unhandled exception, the transaction is rolled back.

You cannot run a PIPE ROW statement in your autonomous routine while your autonomous transaction is open. You must close the autonomous transaction before running the PIPE ROW statement. This is normally accomplished by committing or rolling back the autonomous transaction before running the PIPE ROW statement.

Examples