Locking Commands and Options

SAP ASE allows you to specify a lock wait period or use readpast locking to silently skip all incompatible locks, without blocking, terminating, or generating a message.

Set a Time Limit on Waiting for Locks

You can use the wait or nowait option of the lock table command to specify a time limit on waiting to obtain a table lock.
During a session, you can use the set lock command to specify a lock wait period for all subsequent commands issued during the session.
The sp_configure parameter lock wait period, used with the session-level setting set lock wait nnn, is applicable only to user-defined tables. These settings have no influence on system tables.
Within a stored procedure, you can use the set lock command to specify a lock wait period for all subsequent commands issued within the stored procedure.
You can use the lock wait period option of sp_configure to set a server-wide lock wait period.

wait/nowait Option of the Lock Table Command
Within a transaction, the lock table command allows you to request a table lock on a table without waiting for the command to acquire enough row-level or page-level locks to escalate to a table lock.
Session-Level Lock-Wait Limit
You can use set lock wait to control the length of time that a command in a session or in a stored procedure waits to acquire locks.
Server-Wide Lock-Wait Limit
A system administrator can configure a server-wide lock-wait limit using the lock wait period configuration parameter.
Information on the Number of Lock-Wait Timeouts
sp_sysmon reports on the number of times tasks waiting for locks did not acquire the lock within the specified period.
Readpast Locking for Queue Processing
Readpast locking instructs a command to silently skip all incompatible locks it encounters, without blocking, terminating, or generating a message. It is primarily used when the rows of a table constitute a queue.