Postgres query lock explainer
This is like 4 years old, but I’m braver now and ready to share stuff with this community. I’ve been a lurker for a while. I made this tool - it’s kind of like “explain” but it tells you about what locks would be required by the query. I was making it as part of a larger tool that would try to prevent deadlocks during migrations at my last company, I never finished it.
Postgres query lock explainer launched on May 17, 2023 with 143 votes, #283 of 4,910 launches that month and more than 95% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 3 years on.
In plain words
Postgres Query Lock Explainer analyzes PostgreSQL queries to show what locks they would require, similar to the explain command but focused on locking behavior. Built for database administrators and developers working with Postgres, it helps understand lock requirements during query execution. The tool originated from a larger project aimed at preventing deadlocks during database migrations.
written from the facts on this page · September 2026
From the sources
Command line utility to show what locks will be acquired by a given query. - AdmTal/PostgreSQL-Query-Lock-Explainer
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