Question

I have a @Transactional(REQUIRED) method that invokes a @Transactional(REQUIRES_NEW). The default behaviour I am seeing is the inner transaction is being rolled back, but the outer is being committed. Is this the expected behaviour?

Answer 1

Yes, it is the expected behavior. The outer transaction is suspended while the inner transaction is executed. Once the inner transaction ends (whether it’s a commit or rollback), the outer transaction resumes.

BTW, the documentation says it:

PROPAGATION_REQUIRES_NEW, in contrast to PROPAGATION_REQUIRED, uses a
completely independent transaction for each affected transaction
scope. In that case, the underlying physical transactions are
different and hence can commit or roll back independently, with an
outer transaction not affected by an inner transaction’s rollback
status.