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+# Wal-Mode Blocking Locks
+
+On some Unix-like systems, SQLite may be configured to use POSIX blocking locks
+by:
+
+  * building the library with SQLITE\_ENABLE\_SETLK\_TIMEOUT defined, and 
+  * configuring a timeout in ms using the sqlite3\_busy\_timeout() API.
+
+Blocking locks may be advantageous as (a) waiting database clients do not
+need to continuously poll the database lock, and (b) using blocking locks
+facilitates transfer of OS priority between processes when a high priority
+process is blocked by a lower priority one.
+
+Only read/write clients use blocking locks. Clients that have read-only access
+to the \*-shm file nevery use blocking locks.
+
+Threads or processes that access a single database at a time never deadlock as
+a result of blocking database locks. But it is of course possible for threads
+that lock multiple databases simultaneously to do so. In most cases the OS will
+detect the deadlock and return an error.
+
+## Wal Recovery
+
+Wal database "recovery" is a process required when the number of connected
+database clients changes from zero to one. In this case, a client is 
+considered to connect to the database when it first reads data from it.
+Before recovery commences, an exclusive WRITER lock is taken. 
+
+Without blocking locks, if two clients attempt recovery simultaneously, one
+fails to obtain the WRITER lock and either invokes the busy-handler callback or
+returns SQLITE\_BUSY to the user. With blocking locks configured, the second
+client blocks on the WRITER lock.
+
+## Database Readers
+
+Usually, read-only are not blocked by any other database clients, so they 
+have no need of blocking locks.
+
+If a read-only transaction is being opened on a snapshot, the CHECKPOINTER
+lock is required briefly as part of opening the transaction (to check that a
+checkpointer is not currently overwriting the snapshot being opened). A
+blocking lock is used to obtain the CHECKPOINTER lock in this case. A snapshot
+opener may therefore block on and transfer priority to a checkpointer in some
+cases.
+
+## Database Writers
+
+A database writer must obtain the exclusive WRITER lock. It uses a blocking
+lock to do so if any of the following are true:
+
+  * the transaction is an implicit one consisting of a single DML or DDL
+    statement, or
+  * the transaction is opened using BEGIN IMMEDIATE or BEGIN EXCLUSIVE, or
+  * the first SQL statement executed following the BEGIN command is a DML or
+    DDL statement (not a read-only statement like a SELECT).
+
+In other words, in all cases except when an open read-transaction is upgraded
+to a write-transaction. In that case a non-blocking lock is used.
+
+## Database Checkpointers
+
+Database checkpointers takes the following locks, in order:
+
+  * The exclusive CHECKPOINTER lock.
+  * The exclusive WRITER lock (FULL, RESTART and TRUNCATE only).
+  * Exclusive lock on read-mark slots 1-N. These are immediately released after being taken.
+  * Exclusive lock on read-mark 0.
+  * Exclusive lock on read-mark slots 1-N again. These are immediately released
+    after being taken (RESTART and TRUNCATE only).
+
+All of the above use blocking locks.
+
+## Summary
+
+With blocking locks configured, the only cases in which clients should see an
+SQLITE\_BUSY error are:
+
+  * if the OS does not grant a blocking lock before the configured timeout
+    expires, and
+  * when an open read-transaction is upgraded to a write-transaction.
+
+In all other cases the blocking locks implementation should prevent clients
+from having to handle SQLITE\_BUSY errors and facilitate appropriate transfer
+of priorities between competing clients.
+
+Clients that lock multiple databases simultaneously must be wary of deadlock.
+
+