have trouble understanding xmin and xmax with update operations from two different sessions So, as found below, Session2 is trying to update a row which is already updated with a different value and it's update fails with *UPDATE 0* But from Session3, I see that xmax value is visible as Session2's txid. Why is it like that? Can we not put Session2's txid to xmin instead(although the update failed)? And if we try to consider that xmax is update with Session2's txid bcoz the update failed, then why bother updating the xmax? Please help me understand this. *Session1* testdb=# BEGIN; BEGIN testdb=# select ctid, xmin, xmax, * from numbers; ctid | xmin | xmax | number -------+--------+------+-------- (0,2) | 519107 | 0 | 14 (0,3) | 519112 | 0 | 23 (2 rows) testdb=# select txid_current(); txid_current -------------- 519114 (1 row) testdb=# update numbers set number=24 where number=14; UPDATE 1 testdb=# COMMIT; COMMIT *Session 2* testdb=# BEGIN; BEGIN testdb=# select txid_current(); txid_current -------------- 519115 (1 row) testdb=# select ctid, xmin, xmax, * from numbers; ctid | xmin | xmax | number -------+--------+------+-------- (0,2) | 519107 | 0 | 14 (0,3) | 519112 | 0 | 23 (2 rows) testdb=# select ctid, xmin, xmax, * from numbers; ctid | xmin | xmax | number -------+--------+--------+-------- (0,2) | 519107 | 519114 | 14 (0,3) | 519112 | 0 | 23 (2 rows) testdb=# update numbers set number=25 where number=14; UPDATE 0 testdb=# COMMIT; COMMIT *Session 3* testdb=# select txid_current(); txid_current -------------- 519116 (1 row) testdb=# select ctid, xmin, xmax, * from numbers; ctid | xmin | xmax | number -------+--------+--------+-------- (0,3) | 519112 | 0 | 23 (0,4) | 519114 | 519115 | 24 (2 rows) ----- -- Thanks, Rajan. -- View this message in context: http://www.postgresql-archive.org/have-trouble-understanding-xmin-and-xmax-with-update-operations-from-two-different-sessions-tp5969629.html Sent from the PostgreSQL - general mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- Sent via pgsql-general mailing list (pgsql-general@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-general