What does it mean when a PostgreSQL process is idle in transaction

Question

What does it mean when a PostgreSQL process is  idle in transaction    On a server that I m looking at  the output of  ps ax   grep postgres  I see 9 PostgreSQL processes that look like the following   postgres  user db 127 0 0 1 55658  idle in transaction   Does this mean that some of the processes are hung  waiting for a transaction to be committed   Any pointers to relevant documentation are appreciated

User · Accepted Answer

The PostgreSQL manual indicates that this means the transaction is open (inside BEGIN) and idle. It's most likely a user connected using the monitor who is thinking or typing. I have plenty of those on my system, too.

If you're using Slony for replication, however, the Slony-I FAQ suggests idle in transaction may mean that the network connection was terminated abruptly. Check out the discussion in that FAQ for more details.

User · Answer

As mentioned here  Re  BUG  4243  Idle in transaction it is probably best to check your pg locks table to see what is being locked and that might give you a better clue where the problem lies

[postgresql] What does it mean when a PostgreSQL process is "idle in transaction"?

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