Normally when a BDB XML transaction is blocked on a lock request, it must wait until the requested lock becomes available before its thread-of-control can proceed. However, it is possible to configure a transaction handle such that it will report a deadlock rather than wait for the block to clear.

You do this on a transaction by transaction basis by specifying true to the TransactionConfig.setNoWait() method.

For example:

XmlTransaction txn = null;
try {
    TransactionConfig tc = new TransactionConfig();
    tc.setNoWait(true);
    txn = myManager.createTransaction(null, tc);

    ...

} catch (XmlException e) {
    // Deadlock detection and exception handling omitted
    // for brevity
...