MySQL InnoDB dead lock on SELECT with exclusive lock (FOR UPDATE)

Question

I do this to ensure only once instance of this process is running (pseudo code php/mysql innodb):

START TRANSACTION
$rpid = SELECT `value` FROM locks WHERE name = "lock_name" FOR UPDATE
$pid = posix_getpid();
if($rpid > 0){
  $isRunning = posix_kill($rpid, 0);
  if(!$isRunning){ // isRunning
    INSERT INTO locks values('lock_name', $pid) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `value` = VALUES(`value`)
  }else{
    ROLLBACK
    echo "Allready running...\n";
    exit();
  }
}else{ // if rpid == 0 -
  INSERT INTO locks values('lock_name', $pid) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `value` = VALUES(`value`)
}
COMMIT

...............

//free the pid
INSERT INTO locks values('lock_name', 0) ON DUPLICATE KEY UPDATE `value` = VALUES(`value`)

Table locks contain these fields:

id - primary, autoinc
name - varchar(64) unique key
description - text
value - text

I believe the time from START TRANSACTIN to COMMIT/ROLLBACK is really milliseconds - there is no enough time to even get timeout. How is it possible to get a deadlock with this code? I don't use other tables within this transaction. It looks that deadlock is not possible. If 2 processes start at the same time the first that gets the lock on that row will will proceed and the other will wait the lock to be released. If the lock is not released within 1 minute the error is "timeout", not deadlock.

Answer 1

SELECT FOR UPDATE obtains an intent exclusive lock on the table prior to obtaining the exclusive lock on the record.

Therefore, in this scenario:

X1: SELECT FOR UPDATE -- holds IX, holds X on 'lock_name'
X2: SELECT FOR UPDATE -- holds IX, waits for X on 'lock_name'
X1: INSERT -- holds IX, waits for X for the gap on `id`

a deadlock occurs, since both transactions are holding an IX lock on the table and waiting for an X lock on the records.

Actually, this very scenario is described in the MySQL manual on locking.

To work around this, you need to get rid of all indexes except the one you are searching on, that is lock_name.

Just drop the primary key on id.