doc about using Session with "no transaction" #10223
Open
Conversation
This file contains hidden or bidirectional Unicode text that may be interpreted or compiled differently than what appears below. To review, open the file in an editor that reveals hidden Unicode characters.
Learn more about bidirectional Unicode characters
yrodiere
reviewed
Oct 6, 2025
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I agree this needs to be stated somewhere, and this looks like a good place. But I think you should tone this down, make it less personal and more detached. That won't prevent you from getting your point across IMO. I included suggestions below.
I am pretty sure we both know each other's position on such things, so I won't waste your time explaining why I feel this way and I won't ask why you do :)
Comment on lines
+239
to
+240
| Over the years, we've run into a surprisingly large number of people who insist that they need to access the database with "no transaction" -- which we understand to mean running queries with https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/sql/Connection.html#setAutoCommit--[JDBC autocommit mode] enabled. | ||
| We're _pretty sure_ that this is almost always a terrible idea, and that most of the people doing this are simply mistaken about some aspect of transaction isolation or of what the use of autocommit implies for the management of pooled JDBC connections. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| Over the years, we've run into a surprisingly large number of people who insist that they need to access the database with "no transaction" -- which we understand to mean running queries with https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/sql/Connection.html#setAutoCommit--[JDBC autocommit mode] enabled. | |
| We're _pretty sure_ that this is almost always a terrible idea, and that most of the people doing this are simply mistaken about some aspect of transaction isolation or of what the use of autocommit implies for the management of pooled JDBC connections. | |
| People frequently express the need to access the database with "no transaction" -- which we understand to mean running queries with https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/sql/Connection.html#setAutoCommit--[JDBC autocommit mode] enabled. | |
| We're _pretty sure_ that this is almost always a terrible idea, and that most of the people doing this are simply mistaken about some aspect of transaction isolation or of what the use of autocommit implies for the management of pooled JDBC connections. |
| Over the years, we've run into a surprisingly large number of people who insist that they need to access the database with "no transaction" -- which we understand to mean running queries with https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/api/java/sql/Connection.html#setAutoCommit--[JDBC autocommit mode] enabled. | ||
| We're _pretty sure_ that this is almost always a terrible idea, and that most of the people doing this are simply mistaken about some aspect of transaction isolation or of what the use of autocommit implies for the management of pooled JDBC connections. | ||
| With that said, Hibernate grudgingly allows it. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| With that said, Hibernate grudgingly allows it. | |
| With that said, this is technically possible. |
| With that said, Hibernate grudgingly allows it. | ||
| If you decide to do this weird thing: |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| If you decide to do this weird thing: | |
| If you decide to do this despite our warnings: |
| If you decide to do this weird thing: | ||
| - first, satisfy yourself that you're completely comfortable with the fact that _the database will not help you enforce transaction isolation_, |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| - first, satisfy yourself that you're completely comfortable with the fact that _the database will not help you enforce transaction isolation_, | |
| - first, be aware _the database will not help you enforce transaction isolation_, |
| - first, satisfy yourself that you're completely comfortable with the fact that _the database will not help you enforce transaction isolation_, | ||
| - then set link:{doc-javadoc-url}org/hibernate/cfg/JdbcSettings.html#AUTOCOMMIT[`hibernate.connection.autocommit=true`], and | ||
| - make damn sure that your connection pool is returning connections with autocommit enabled by default. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| - make damn sure that your connection pool is returning connections with autocommit enabled by default. | |
| - be extra careful to set up your connection pool so that it is returning connections with autocommit enabled by default. |
| - then set link:{doc-javadoc-url}org/hibernate/cfg/JdbcSettings.html#AUTOCOMMIT[`hibernate.connection.autocommit=true`], and | ||
| - make damn sure that your connection pool is returning connections with autocommit enabled by default. | ||
| In fact, simply don't do this unless you have set up tools to snoop the protocol-level interaction between the JDBC driver and the database server, so that you can verify your understanding of what "no transaction" actually implies. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
I'm really not sure what kind of verifications you're asking for here.
| In fact, simply don't do this unless you have set up tools to snoop the protocol-level interaction between the JDBC driver and the database server, so that you can verify your understanding of what "no transaction" actually implies. | ||
| If you think you want to actually _write_ to the database️ with autocommit enabled 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️,️ that's possible too, but you'll need to either <<flush,`flush()`>> the session explicitly or, even better, use a <<stateless-sessions,stateless session>>. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Pretty sure people know what they want better than us. They might not know what they need, though.
Suggested change
| If you think you want to actually _write_ to the database️ with autocommit enabled 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️,️ that's possible too, but you'll need to either <<flush,`flush()`>> the session explicitly or, even better, use a <<stateless-sessions,stateless session>>. | |
| If you think you need to actually _write_ to the database️ with autocommit enabled,️ that's possible too, but you'll need to either <<flush,`flush()`>> the session explicitly or, even better, use a <<stateless-sessions,stateless session>>. |
Comment on lines
+253
to
+254
| And don't come complaining to us when your database starts filling up with inconsistent garbage. | ||
| // Because you've now been thoroughly warned, and we're going to enjoy laughing at you. |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Suggested change
| And don't come complaining to us when your database starts filling up with inconsistent garbage. | |
| // Because you've now been thoroughly warned, and we're going to enjoy laughing at you. | |
| And keep in mind we will not address any problem resulting from this usage, such as the database filling up with inconsistent data. |
Comment on lines
+236
to
+238
| [[outside-transaction]] | ||
| .💀 Using the session with no transaction 💀 | ||
| **** |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
Might as well use admonitions instead of emojis?
Suggested change
| [[outside-transaction]] | |
| .💀 Using the session with no transaction 💀 | |
| **** | |
| [[outside-transaction]] | |
| [CAUTION] | |
| .Using the session with no transaction | |
| ==== |
| If you think you want to actually _write_ to the database️ with autocommit enabled 🏴☠️🏴☠️🏴☠️,️ that's possible too, but you'll need to either <<flush,`flush()`>> the session explicitly or, even better, use a <<stateless-sessions,stateless session>>. | ||
| And don't come complaining to us when your database starts filling up with inconsistent garbage. | ||
| // Because you've now been thoroughly warned, and we're going to enjoy laughing at you. | ||
| **** |
Member
There was a problem hiding this comment.
If replacing with an admonition:
Suggested change
| **** | |
| ==== |
Sign up for free
to join this conversation on GitHub.
Already have an account?
Sign in to comment
2 participants
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
This suggestion is invalid because no changes were made to the code.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is closed.
Suggestions cannot be applied while viewing a subset of changes.
Only one suggestion per line can be applied in a batch.
Add this suggestion to a batch that can be applied as a single commit.
Applying suggestions on deleted lines is not supported.
You must change the existing code in this line in order to create a valid suggestion.
Outdated suggestions cannot be applied.
This suggestion has been applied or marked resolved.
Suggestions cannot be applied from pending reviews.
Suggestions cannot be applied on multi-line comments.
Suggestions cannot be applied while the pull request is queued to merge.
Suggestion cannot be applied right now. Please check back later.
[Please describe here what your change is about]
By submitting this pull request, I confirm that my contribution is made under the terms of the Apache 2.0 license
and can be relicensed under the terms of the LGPL v2.1 license in the future at the maintainers' discretion.
For more information on licensing, please check here.