Question

We’ve had issues in the past where a rogue process was keeping a sqlite db locked. I’ve written some code to notify us if this is happening, but need to test it.

How can I deliberately lock up a sqlite database, so that I can check if it’s locked?

Answer 1

Execute these statements:

PRAGMA locking_mode = EXCLUSIVE;
BEGIN EXCLUSIVE;

This will lock whole database until you execute:

COMMIT;
// turn off exclusive locking mode
PRAGMA locking_mode = NORMAL; 
// for locking mode to actually take effect, perform any read or write operation on any table:
SELECT * FROM any_table LIMIT 1;

For simplicity, you can do this using sqlite3 command line utility.

For more info, see documentation.