Configuring Lock timeout in Oracle 8i

Question

I need to reduce the time Oracle is waiting for a locked record to be released.
At this moment, when a transaction tries to update a record that is being updated in another transaction, Oracle waits forever to that record be unlocked.
I need to change this so Oracle waits until just a defined time for record to be unlocked, and after thats finalizes excetution with any error I can check.
I'd tried the LockTimeOut property of ORAODBC.INI, but there is a Know Bug in the Oracle ODBC Driver 8.01.07 and above, for Windows NT that prevents this feature from working.
Regards,
Victor Espina

Answer 1

The problem is not with a SELECT statement but with another UPDATE statement.
I'm accessing the Oracle database from Visual Foxpro, using ODBC driver.
I reproduced the problem in this way:
LOCAL cConnectString
cConnectString="Driver={Oracle ODBC Driver};Dbq=EM;uid=system;pwd=manager"
*-- Entablish a connection to Oracle databse
Hnd1=SQLSTRINGCONNECT(cConnectString)
*-- Entablish another connection
Hnd2=SQLSTRINGCONNECT(cConnectString)
*-- Configuring both connections to use manual
* transactions. In this mode, a transacction
* is started automatically whan a DML statement
* is sent to the server, and it finished with
* a COMMIT or a ROLLBACK statment.
SQLSETPROP(Hnd1,"transactions",DB_TRANSMANUAL)
SQLSETPROP(Hnd2,"transactions",DB_TRANSMANUAL)
*-- Start a new transaction a lock a row
Exec("SAVEPOINT P1",Hnd1)
Exec("UPDATE t1 SET nom='TEST' WHERE cod='01'",Hnd1)
*-- Start another transaction in 2nd connection
* and try to update the SAME RECORD being updated
* in 1st connection. In this point, SQLEXEC() does
* not NEVER returns beacuse Oracle waits forever for
* locked record being released. This is what i need
* to avoid.
Exec("SAVEPOINT P1",Hnd2)
Exec("UPDATE t1 SET nom='TEST' WHERE cod='01'",Hnd2)
*-- Rollback any change in both connections
Exec("ROLLBACK",Hnd1)
Exec("ROLLBACK",Hnd2)
*-- Disconnect both connections
SQLDISCONNECT(0)
I hope this clearifies my point.
Regards,
Victor Espina