Transaction commands

This section explains the SHOW TRANSACTIONS and TERMINATION TRANSACTIONS commands.

SHOW TRANSACTIONS

The SHOW TRANSACTIONS command is used to display running transactions within the instance. This also includes fabric transactions. For remote database aliases, transactions can be tracked by running SHOW TRANSACTIONS when connected to the remote database alias.

The command SHOW TRANSACTIONS returns only the default output. For a full output use the optional YIELD command. Full output: SHOW TRANSACTIONS YIELD *.

This command will produce a table with the following columns:

Table 1. List transactions output
Column	Description	Type
`database`	The name of the database the transaction is executing against. Default Output	`STRING`
`transactionId`	The transaction ID. Default Output	`STRING`
`currentQueryId`	The ID of the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty string if no query is currently executing. Default Output	`STRING`
`connectionId`	The ID of the database connection attached to the transaction or an empty string for embedded connections. Default Output	`STRING`
`clientAddress`	The client address of the connection issuing the transaction or an empty string if unavailable. Default Output	`STRING`
`username`	The username of the user executing the transaction. Default Output	`STRING`
`currentQuery`	The query text of the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty string if no query is currently executing. Default Output	`STRING`
`startTime`	The time at which the transaction was started. Default Output	`STRING`
`status`	The current status of the transaction (`Terminated`, `Blocked`, `Closing` or `Running`). Default Output	`STRING`
`elapsedTime`	The time that has elapsed since the transaction was started. Default Output	`DURATION`
`allocatedBytes`	The number of bytes allocated on the heap so far by the transaction, or `0` if unavailable. Default Output	`LONG`
`outerTransactionId`	The ID of this transaction’s outer transaction, if such exists, otherwise an empty string. For details, see `CALL { … } IN TRANSACTIONS`.	`STRING`
`metaData`	Any metadata associated with the transaction, or an empty map if there is none.	`MAP`
`parameters`	A map containing all the parameters used by the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty map if no query is currently executing.	`MAP`
`planner`	The name of the Cypher planner used to plan the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty string if no query is currently executing. For details, see Cypher planner.	`STRING`
`runtime`	The name of the Cypher runtime used by the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty string if no query is currently executing. For details, see Cypher runtime.	`STRING`
`indexes`	The indexes utilised by the query currently executing in this transaction, or an empty list if no query is currently executing.	`LIST OF MAP`
`protocol`	The protocol used by the connection issuing the transaction. This is not necessarily an internet protocol, such as http, et.c., although it could be. It might also be "embedded", for example, if this connection represents an embedded session.	`STRING`
`requestUri`	The request URI used by the client connection issuing the transaction, or `null` if the URI is not available.	`STRING`
`statusDetails`	Provide additional status details from the underlying transaction or an empty string if none is available.	`STRING`
`resourceInformation`	Information about any blocked transactions, or an empty map if there is none.	`MAP`
`activeLockCount`	Count of active locks held by the transaction.	`LONG`
`cpuTime`	CPU time that has been actively spent executing the transaction, or `0` if unavailable.	`DURATION`
`waitTime`	Wait time that has been spent waiting to acquire locks.	`DURATION`
`idleTime`	Idle time for this transaction, or `0` if unavailable.	`DURATION`
`allocatedDirectBytes`	Amount of off-heap (native) memory allocated by the transaction in bytes, or `0` if unavailable.	`LONG`
`estimatedUsedHeapMemory`	The estimated amount of used heap memory allocated by the transaction in bytes, or `0` if unavailable.	`LONG`
`pageHits`	The total number of page cache hits that the transaction performed.	`LONG`
`pageFaults`	The total number of page cache faults that the transaction performed.	`LONG`
`initializationStackTrace`	The initialization stacktrace for this transaction, or an empty string if unavailable.	`STRING`

Syntax

More details about the syntax descriptions can be found here.

List transactions on the current server

SHOW TRANSACTION[S] [transaction-id[,...]]
[YIELD { * | field[, ...] } [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]
[WHERE expression]
[RETURN field[, ...] [ORDER BY field[, ...]] [SKIP n] [LIMIT n]]

The format of transaction-id is <databaseName>-transaction-<id>. Transaction IDs must be supplied as a comma-separated list of one or more quoted strings, a string parameter, or a list parameter.

When using the RETURN clause, the YIELD clause is mandatory and must not be omitted.

A user with the SHOW TRANSACTION privilege can view the currently executing transactions in accordance with the privilege grants. All users may view all of their own currently executing transactions.

Listing all transactions

To list all available transactions with the default output columns, use the SHOW TRANSACTIONS command. If all columns are required, use SHOW TRANSACTIONS YIELD *.

Query

SHOW TRANSACTIONS

Table 2. Result
database	transactionId	currentQueryId	connectionId	clientAddress	username	currentQuery	startTime	status	elapsedTime	allocatedBytes
`"neo4j"`	`"neo4j-transaction-6"`	`"query-664"`	`""`	`""`	`""`	`"SHOW TRANSACTIONS"`	`"2022-06-14T10:02:45.568Z"`	`"Running"`	`PT0.038S`	`0`
`"neo4j"`	`"neo4j-transaction-4"`	`"query-663"`	`""`	`""`	`""`	`"MATCH (n) RETURN n"`	`"2022-06-14T10:02:45.546Z"`	`"Running"`	`PT0.06S`	`0`
Rows: 2

Listing transactions with filtering on output columns

The listed transactions can be filtered by using the WHERE clause. For example, getting the databases for all transactions where the currently executing query contains 'Mark':

Query

SHOW TRANSACTIONS YIELD database, currentQuery WHERE currentQuery contains 'Mark'

Table 3. Result
database	currentQuery
`"neo4j"`	`"MATCH (p:Person) WHERE p.name='Mark' RETURN p"`
`"neo4j"`	`"SHOW TRANSACTIONS YIELD database, currentQuery WHERE currentQuery contains 'Mark'"`
Rows: 2

Several of the output columns have the duration type, which can be hard to read. They can instead be returned in a more readable format:

Query

SHOW TRANSACTIONS
YIELD transactionId, elapsedTime, cpuTime, waitTime, idleTime
RETURN
  transactionId AS txId,
  elapsedTime.milliseconds AS elapsedTimeMillis,
  cpuTime.milliseconds AS cpuTimeMillis,
  waitTime.milliseconds AS waitTimeMillis,
  idleTime.seconds AS idleTimeSeconds

Table 4. Result
txId	elapsedTimeMillis	cpuTimeMillis	waitTimeMillis	idleTimeSeconds
`"neo4j-transaction-5"`	`692`	`19`	`0`	`0`
`"neo4j-transaction-4"`	`700`	`577`	`0`	`0`
`"neo4j-transaction-9"`	`113`	`110`	`0`	`0`
Rows: 3

Listing specific transactions

It is possible to specify which transactions to return in the list by transaction ID.

Query

SHOW TRANSACTIONS "neo4j-transaction-3"

Table 5. Result
database	transactionId	currentQueryId	connectionId	clientAddress	username	currentQuery	startTime	status	elapsedTime	allocatedBytes
`"neo4j"`	`"neo4j-transaction-3"`	`"query-1"`	`""`	`""`	`""`	`"MATCH (n) RETURN n"`	`"2021-10-20T08:29:39.423Z"`	`"Running"`	`PT2.603S`	`0`
Rows: 1

TERMINATE TRANSACTIONS

The TERMINATE TRANSACTIONS command is used to terminate running transactions by their IDs.

This command will produce a table with the following columns:

Table 6. Terminate transactions output
Column	Description	Type
`transactionId`	The transaction ID.	`STRING`
`username`	The username of the user executing the transaction.	`STRING`
`message`	The result of the `TERMINATE TRANSACTION` command as applied to this transaction.	`STRING`

Syntax

More details about the syntax descriptions can be found here.

Terminate transactions by ID on the current server

TERMINATE TRANSACTION[S] transaction_id[, ...]

The format of transaction-id is <databaseName>-transaction-<id>. Transaction IDs must be supplied as a comma-separated list of one or more quoted strings, a string parameter, or a list parameter.

A user with the TERMINATE TRANSACTION privilege can terminate transactions in accordance with the privilege grants. All users may terminate their own currently executing transactions.

Terminate transactions

To end running transactions without waiting for them to complete on their own, use the TERMINATE TRANSACTIONS command.

Query

TERMINATE TRANSACTIONS "neo4j-transaction-1","neo4j-transaction-2"

Table 7. Result
transactionId	username	message
`"neo4j-transaction-1"`	`"neo4j"`	`"Transaction terminated."`
`"neo4j-transaction-2"`	`null`	`"Transaction not found."`
Rows: 2