How to Lock and then Unlock sqlite database using c? - c

Question

I am testing for this question using SQLite 3 database in C language.
On one thread, I am accessing a table 'audio' and on the other thread I am renaming that table to dummy and back to audio. But I get following errors after sometime
database is locked from one thread
cannot start transaction within another transaction from another thread.
I read somewhere that using transaction locks a database and unlocks it after commit. But that's not happening here. Can anyone suggest the mistake or proper solution.
Here is my code :
#include <stdio.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <sqlite3.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
static int callback1(void *data, int argc, char **argv, char **azColName){
int i;
fprintf(stderr, "%s: ", (const char*)data);
printf("%s = %s\n", azColName[0], argv[0] ? argv[0] : "NULL");
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
void *dbOps1 (void * name)
{
sqlite3 *db;
char *zErrMsg = 0;
int rc;
char *sql;
const char* data = "";
/* Open database */
rc = sqlite3_open("myDB.db", &db);
if( rc ){
printf("Can't open database: %s\n", sqlite3_errmsg(db));
exit(0);
}else{
printf("Opened database successfully\n");
}
/* Create SQL statement */
sql = "SELECT * from audio";
/* Execute SQL statement */
for(;;)
{
rc = sqlite3_exec(db, sql, callback1, (void*)data, &zErrMsg);
if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
printf("SQL error: %s\n", zErrMsg);
sqlite3_free(zErrMsg);
}else{
// printf("Operation done successfully\n");
}
}
sqlite3_close(db);
return 0;
}
static int callback2(void *data, int argc, char **argv, char **azColName){
int i;
fprintf(stderr, "%s: ", (const char*)data);
printf("%s = %s\n", azColName[1], argv[1] ? argv[1] : "NULL");
printf("\n");
return 0;
}
void *dbOps2 (void * name)
{
sqlite3 *db;
char *zErrMsg = 0;
int rc;
char *sql;
const char* data = "";
/* Open database */
rc = sqlite3_open("myDB.db", &db);
if( rc ){
printf("Can't open database: %s\n", sqlite3_errmsg(db));
exit(0);
}else{
printf("Opened database successfully\n");
}
/* Create SQL statement */
sql = "Begin transaction;alter table audio rename to dummy;alter table dummy rename to audio;commit transaction;";
/* Execute SQL statement */
for(;;)
{
rc = sqlite3_exec(db, sql, callback2, (void*)data, &zErrMsg);
if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
printf("SQL error: %s\n", zErrMsg);
sqlite3_free(zErrMsg);
}else{
// printf("Operation done successfully\n");
}
}
sqlite3_close(db);
return 0;
}
int main()
{
pthread_t thread1,thread2;
char * message1="Thread 1";
char * message2="Thread 2";
int iret1=pthread_create(&thread1,NULL,dbOps1,(void *)message1);
int iret2=pthread_create(&thread2,NULL,dbOps2,(void *)message2);
pthread_join(thread1,NULL);
pthread_join(thread2,NULL);
printf("Thread 1 return code :%d\n",iret1);
printf("Thread 2 return code :%d\n",iret2);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

You get the "database is locked" error because you did not set a busy timeout that is long enough.
(The default, 0, certainly isn't.)
The "cannot start transaction within another transaction" is just a consequence of not committing or rolling back the first transaction before starting the second one. (sqlite3_exec stops at the first error.)